this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] swag_money 113 points 7 months ago (3 children)

J3 is the 3rd month that starts with J so it's July. 49 is the 49th day of July so August 18th. easy peasy

[–] ikidd 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think this means it expires 349 months after the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

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[–] andrewta 91 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Late June in the year 349

Actually I have no idea, it's an odd bunch of initials

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lol, this doesn't make any sense at all.

It's Late July obviously

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[–] _sideffect 10 points 7 months ago

Lol, I was going to say last June

[–] ceenote 78 points 7 months ago (3 children)

It might be the Julian date (I have no idea where the name comes from) which is just basically January 1st is 001, December 31st is 365, and the rest of the year is between. So this would be around December 15th.

We used it for food expirations on some things at the convenience store I used to work at.

[–] Vorticity 42 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The name comes from the name of the person who first proposed the Julian Calendar, Julius Caesar.

[–] Rhynoplaz 49 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Wow. Calendars AND salads? Is there anything that man couldn't do?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

He couldn't stop himself get stabbed in the back by his homies.

[–] OpenHammer6677 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget the child delivery method!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

He was a buay man with all the salad and calendar making and had no time to just wait around for a kid to come out whenever they felt like it.

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[–] Confused_Emus 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Seems useful if you’re trained to read these, but it seems like a kinda shitty system to be slapping on stuff for sale to the general public.

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[–] GladiusB 54 points 7 months ago (10 children)

Former grocery manager here. There are companies that purposely sell these weird cryptic date formats. I would always need to go look for their certain code to figure out what it translates to. I can't remember why either other than it's not normal and we just dealt with it.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Some uk supermarkets have started dropping the use by date in favour of codes like this. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45786012 The article says it’s to reduce waste and that staff will have special training to know when to bin stuff. I imagine the training is in how to read the codes.

[–] trolololol 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What duck heads

Should I call customer support every time I'm about to cook dinner?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I assume the point is the "best before" dates are mostly useless. They're useful for the store, but for a customer usually you should tell by smelling and looking at it. We evolved with senses to tell us when food has gone bad. Those dates aren't part of it. So much food is wasted because people think those are magic and should be obayed like a law.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

That's great unless you have an impaired sense of smell, like I had for the last 2 weeks following a COVID infection, or other people have permanently.

[–] T00l_shed 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

On the flip side, knowing the rough best before date helps people buy the freshest stuff, since I can't open the cream with a date that says jr402 I won't know if it should be good for a week or a month.

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[–] clif 35 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I mean... Expiration dates are mostly a lie anyway. Just do the sniff test, probably fine.

But, on topic, I do appreciate the post since that's weird.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Expiration dates give a clear and easy way to know if something is definitely still good.

Only after the expiration date do you have the need to do the sniff

[–] hswolf 14 points 7 months ago

I've seen food expire before the date stated, so you should also take into account where you live and the regulatory entities that manage your food and stuff.

I'd say always do the sniff if you are worried.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Leave your beef out on the counter for a day and I assure you, the expiration date will be useless.

Expiration dates are 99/100 times a baseline for guessing if an item is safe to consume. If you’re not using your brain and actually checking, you’re gonna have a bad time.

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[–] db2 33 points 7 months ago (3 children)

At least it doesn't say LV426...

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Companies are allowed to do this in some nations as long as they also distribute the cipher to grocers. For example, literally every chewing tobacco I've seen. This leads to higher sales because lazy employees don't take the time to check the printout and remove expired product.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 7 months ago (7 children)

I have no reason to doubt what you're saying, but I really have to say this is the dumbest bullshit I've ever heard. The whole idea of putting expiration dates on products (and nutritional info for that matter) is for consumers to be able to interpret this stuff. Not manufacturers and not store managers. Consumers. There's no excuse for allowing this.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

No arguments that it's shifty and dumb, but it's better if the store can be held liable for selling bad product. That said, almost anything with "best by" as opposed to "expired by" is still safe to eat for probably decades.

[–] Evotech 11 points 7 months ago

Wow that's stupid as fuck

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Did you know you can store smoked salmon at room temp pretty much indefinitely in an unopened package?

Food storage has gotten really good, all the tricks of smoke, sugar or salt of our ancestors with now radiation sterilization and other cool tricks with science.
All that to say. It's probably fine. You just bought it and I'm sure this was made to last as long as it can as reliably as it can so that they don't lose money.

Most best buy dates are just made up anyways and not based on much. Check for gas build up, a weird odor, extreme discoloration, or foreign objects or growths. That will get you through pretty much every rotten food type without having to taste it.

That's said, where are you shopping that has a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, French, and robot codes?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Asian grocery in Quebec maybe?

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[–] halcyoncmdr 25 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Not sure about LJ... but 349 could simply refer to the day number. Day 349 this year is December 14th.

This is using the Julian calendar (standard calendar for most things)... maybe the J in LJ?

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[–] Etterra 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm no expert but I think that's the planet from Alien and Aliens.

[–] zik 33 points 7 months ago

Close... That moon's called LV426

[–] solomon42069 22 points 7 months ago

Live Journal user id 349

In order to determine the best before you'll need to solve the emo's riddle.

[–] zakobjoa 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It refers to the year of our Lord J-town 349.

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[–] 3volver 20 points 7 months ago

That looks like a failure to regulate and standardize expiration date format which ultimately benefits corporations and fucks the consumer.

[–] idunnololz 17 points 7 months ago (8 children)

I looked around the packaging for other clues as suggested by another Lemming but I didn't find anything. In fact I found the same thing printed on the front.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's best before the amount of time it takes to do 349 Oh Long Johnsons.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Julian date format, Dec 14th (349th day of the year)

The LJ prefix is some manufacturer code, not relevant to exp date

[–] GeneralTeetius01 10 points 7 months ago

Looks like a Julian date. 349 would reference the 349th day of the year. So assuming this year 2024, it would be best by December 14. Normally it would have the year at the end of the 3 digits (3494) for BB Dec 14 2024. Best guess I have. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Usernamealreadyinuse 10 points 7 months ago (3 children)

OP! Can you please let us know:

  1. If you found more clues?
  2. Decided to eat it? And if so, how you are doing!?!

Thanks!!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

I mean, it's frozen, so the best before date is pretty loose at best anyways

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it’s “Lichtjahr”? So as long as you stay within 3*10^15km of earth you should be fine 👍

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