BESTBY APR0120XX
June 8, 2019 7:30 AM Subscribe
A different kind of expiration date question.
I have a pack of Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread (vegan vegetable oil spread). On the side of the lid is printed:
"BESTBY APR0120XX 15:17"
I assume 15:17 is some kind of packing code and not the exact time it expires, but what's up with April 01, 20XX? How do I determine the value of X? Do I have a whole century to eat it? If they're referring to the year 2020, why didn't they just print that, since they obviously had enough characters in the stamp?
Best answer: A family member's job used to involve various expiration date codes. I found out that sometimes the person on the production line would forget to set the code before they ran a batch, so you'd get things like 20xx instead of 2020 (or whatever) and by the time it's discovered, it's too costly a mistake to correct. I don't know for certain that happened here, so you might contact Earth Balance customer service to see if they can decipher it. They also might send you a coupon for a free replacement to compensate you for the confusion.
posted by bluecore at 8:00 AM on June 8, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by bluecore at 8:00 AM on June 8, 2019 [11 favorites]
XX is 20 in Roman numerals, so there's that.
posted by flabdablet at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2019 [5 favorites]
You definitely don't have to worry about earth balance going bad, even if it technically expired in April, if it sat in your fridge. it's totally fine. but yeah it looks like somebody at the factory didn't set the date code machine correctly
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
There is no reason to put the first two digits of the year when you have limited space (which is why they abbreviated April), and most people abbreviate years that way, so I’m with zamboni. The 20 means 2020, and the XX is something else.
posted by FencingGal at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
There's no way to be sure (unless someone from that company or plant chimes in) but my guess is that at one point, probably back a few years ago, they were printing 4 digit years. Or at least that's what the stamp was designed for.
But now that we're firmly in the 21st century, there's no real reason to print a 4-digit year, so they've gone back to 2-digit years and have reserved the trailing digits for some other purpose. XX could just be a placeholder for the unused digits, or it could have some significance according to some arbitrary production code scheme.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:46 AM on June 8, 2019
But now that we're firmly in the 21st century, there's no real reason to print a 4-digit year, so they've gone back to 2-digit years and have reserved the trailing digits for some other purpose. XX could just be a placeholder for the unused digits, or it could have some significance according to some arbitrary production code scheme.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:46 AM on June 8, 2019
Best answer: Just checked the Earth Balance in my fridge, which was probably purchased sometime late last year, and it says "BESTBYAUG1319XX 14 20." So that would support the theory that mine expires in 2019 and yours in 2020 and that's just how they print their expiration dates.
I would still eat it well past the best by date though.
posted by zachlipton at 7:52 PM on June 8, 2019 [6 favorites]
I would still eat it well past the best by date though.
posted by zachlipton at 7:52 PM on June 8, 2019 [6 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zamboni at 7:59 AM on June 8, 2019 [1 favorite]