How to Read Expirations on General Mills Cans

One of the first things people look at on a food-product can these days is the "sell-by" date. This is the information used by the stores to determine how long things may remain on their shelves. However General Mills does code its canned goods with more information to help you, the consumer, figure out how long a product might have been sitting on the shelf. This information will come in handy when you reach into the back of the pantry.

Instructions

Reading the codes

• 1

  Find the code on your canned good. This is usually located on the bottom of the can, or in a white box somewhere on the label.

• 2

  Read the code on the label. It will look something like this: A623W

• 3

  Interpret the code, according to the Betty Crocker website, by looking at the first letter, which denotes the month that the product was packaged. Each letter corresponds to a month of the year. "A" is the code for January. So the month code list would look like this:

  A - January

  B - February

  C - March

  D - April

  E - May

  F - June

  G - July

  H - August

  I - September

  J - October

  K - November

  L - December

• 4

  Interpret the code for the year the product was produced. The next number is the last digit of the year the product was packaged in. So if the number of the year code is "6", the product was packaged in 2006.

• 5

  Interpret the day and month the product was packaged by looking at the next two digits. If the second and third numbers are "2" and "3", the product was packaged on the 23rd of that month.

• 6

  Interpret the code for the location where the product was packaged. Look for the last letter. According to the Betty Crocker website, if the code is "W," that means the product was packaged at General Mills' west Chicago plant.

• 7

  Translate the entire code as a block of information. To translate the hypothetical code stated here, you would determine the following information:

  A - This product was packaged in January

  6 - This product was packaged in 2006

  23 - This product was packaged on the 23rd

  W - This product was packaged at the west Chicago plant.