Guess My Expiration Date!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

So one of my tasks for tonight was to go through some aisles in the grocery department, check all the date codes on the products, and remove all the outdated product.

The most outdated product we found was a pack of Jello snack-packs that expired in July--of 2005.

This task was easy for the most part, because most items have an expiration date printed in black ink on a light colored spot of the packaging so it's easy to read. Others were tougher to decipher because the expiration date was:

1. Printed in black ink on a dark-colored part of the package:
2. Stamped on the box very lightly, or
3. The expiration date was given in a code featuring an inscrutible array of letters, numbers and symbols, such as:

jgig4h234#877y^&*(^hfupi34hoiGH!xgh&^%$54rf~jaed33 2

where jgig=the plant the product was made at
4h234=the ID of the employee who packaged the item
#877=the weather at the plant the day the product was manufactured
y=the species of rodent that met its untimely demise in the plant machinery that day
and so on...

Oh well, at least it beat slaving away in the walk-in freezer we call a backroom...

[Sofar]

I had a microwave calzone once that said plain as day: Exp. Jul. 2147. It may have meant July 21st, '47, but that's still a ways off.

I also buy a certain brand of fruit pie that lists its expiration date to the minute. Being as they're fruit pies they've a shelf life of five years or so, so that's quite a prognosis.

[Greenday]

When I was at work one time, I decided I wanted to try a Tab soda as no one ever seemed to by any. So, I got to the fridge, take one out, pop it open, and take a sip. That was so...freaking...nasty. I looked at the expiration date. It had expired a lil over two years ago.

[trunks2k]

When I was at work one time, I decided I wanted to try a Tab soda as no one ever seemed to by any. So, I got to the fridge, take one out, pop it open, and take a sip. That was so...freaking...nasty. I looked at the expiration date. It had expired a lil over two years ago.

That nasty taste wasn't due to the expiration date.

As for really expired stuff, my parent's have a can of Harley Davidson beer that's older than I am.

[CanadaGirl]

When I was at work one time, I decided I wanted to try a Tab soda as no one ever seemed to by any. So, I got to the fridge, take one out, pop it open, and take a sip. That was so...freaking...nasty. I looked at the expiration date. It had expired a lil over two years ago.

For some reason, drinks in aluminum cans tend to taste bad quicker than when they are in glass bottles. I have some Mikes hard lemonade coolers in my fridge, some are cans and some are bottles. Both are a few months old. The can ones taste... weird. But the bottled ones are fresh as the bottling day.

[trunks2k]

For some reason, drinks in aluminum cans tend to taste bad quicker than when they are in glass bottles.

That's because the stuff inside the can is usually acidic, which reacts with the aluminum and starts to break the can down (very slowly), so you end up with a lot of aluminum in the liquid. You don't get this sort of reaction with glass.

[digilight]

Actually Diet sodas lose their taste quicker then regular sodas (the artificall sweetners deteriorate quickly). Plastic bottles (2 liters, 20 oz's, etc) have a shelf life of about 90 days. Cans have a life of about 6 months or so. Its the light that helps quicken the process. Regular sodas (with sugar) will last longer, sometimes even past their date.

This is also why most beer is bottled in the brown bottles or in a few cases that dark green bottles. It filters out a lot of the light and gives a longer shelf life.

As far as old ass items though, I have a little 7oz bottle of Miller Red (beer) that I got about 10 years ago. It must taste horrible now.

[Becks]

Others were tougher to decipher because the expiration date was:

<snip>

3. The expiration date was given in a code featuring an inscrutible array of letters, numbers and symbols, such as:

jgig4h234#877y^&*(^hfupi34hoiGH!xgh&^%$54rf~jaed33 2

I would LOVE if someone would tell me how to tell an expiration date from that stuff, so I can be terrified at some of the canned goods in the pantry.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I would LOVE if someone would tell me how to tell an expiration date from that stuff, so I can be terrified at some of the canned goods in the pantry.

I would love to tell you, but I can't.

Most likely this is because the cheat sheet they gave us that described all the codes used by the different manufacturers must have been outdated. The codes on the sheet never matched what was printed on the package.

[Rahmota]

Greenday: i gotta agree fresh from the factory tab still tastes wierd/nasty.

I've noticed that about the can vs bottle ting. With Ale8-1 the cans taste a lot harsher than the glass bottes while te plastic tastes just kinda ehhh.

As for expiration dates. I do a lot of camping and hiking and so I get that freeze dried astronaut food and MREs. Those bad boys dont have an expiration date basically. Its somethin like 10 years out from the date of manufacture. And thats probably being conservative.

[Bella_Vixen]

Talk about timing...

After working in gas stations for almost 4 years, I finally learned how to check expiration dates on candy bars on Monday. (Not that you should really need to know this, you should get rid of candy that you know hasn't sold in quite some time...)

We had a couple candy bars that expired Dec. 2005.

[Becks]

I would love to tell you, but I can't.

Tease.

[El Barto]

Talk about timing...

After working in gas stations for almost 4 years, I finally learned how to check expiration dates on candy bars on Monday. (Not that you should really need to know this, you should get rid of candy that you know hasn't sold in quite some time...)

We had a couple candy bars that expired Dec. 2005.

How?

I only know of one method of figuring out if a candy bar is expired or not and it's not pleasant. After making several trips to the bathroom in a very short period of time during one shift I discovered that even though it tasted fine, the box of Crunch bars that came out of the overstock room had been back there a little too long. I really wish they'd just put dates on everything.

[Byronthebanker]

Back when I was Byron the grocer, I was working a remodel and we were taking out the shelving units from the store to make way for the new ones. Well, apparently when the store was being built in 1976, someone wanted to leave a little time capsule, because between/behind one of the units was a 1976 penny, nickel, dime, and quarter . .all set down into the sealer of the floor, and a can of house brand soda was put down in the wet sealer too. We found this shrine in 1996 .. so that soda was about 19 years out of date.

It was a neat find. The can was aluminum and looked great. Also there was no bar-code as that didn't become poplar for that company until about 1980.

[Bella_Vixen]

How?

Long explaination short: numer corresponds to year (6=2006, 7=2007, etc) and letter (A, B, C, etc.-L) corresponds to the month, so...you have a Nestle Crunch coded 6L********means it expired the end of Dec. 2006.