finding the expiration date of a candy bar

Laura Vryhof/Demand Media

It's long past Halloween and y'all're wondering if that huge stash of your child'southward candy bars is still condom to eat. Or it's the side by side Halloween and you're wondering if you can give out final twelvemonth's candy. Wonder no more. Though the expiration coding on candy bars can announced mystifying, there is a way to translate the numbers and letters into a meaningful expiration date.

Look at the Candy Bar

finding the expiration date of a candy bar

Laura Vryhof/Demand Media

Candy bars volition either take a comprehensible "All-time By" date or a numbered code on their package. Look at the candy bar outset. If you see a date, such equally "August 2010" or "10 Aug" and then that'due south the "All-time By" date, not the date when information technology was produced.

If there is nothing that resembles a date, but instead a string of characters, some detective work will be in guild.

M&Ms and Mars

finding the expiration date of a candy bar

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On the processed bars of these companies, you'll find a ten-digit line of numbers and letters that looks similar it doesn't hateful anything. It does, just you lot only need to worry almost the get-go 3 numbers. To read it, await at the kickoff number. This stands for the concluding number in a year. A "9" means 2009; a "nada" means 2010; a "1" means 2011.

Look at the 2 numbers following. These correspond which week of the year it was manufactured. If the commencement 3 numbers are 106, this ways information technology expires in the sixth week of the year, or in the middle of February 2011. The processed has a shelf life of approximately one yr.

Hershey's

finding the expiration date of a candy bar

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Once more, there is a code stamped somewhere on the candy bar. Hershey's usually places this at the cease. The code consists of a number and a letter.

The number corresponds to the twelvemonth. Thus a 1 represents 2011. The letter corresponds to the month. "A" is January, "B" is February, "C" is March, so on until December. A code of 1L means that the product is good until December 2011.

Chocolate Blooms

finding the expiration date of a candy bar

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Sometimes, night or milk chocolate will plow white or tan. There is no cause for alarm, says Hershey'southward. This occurs when the temperature rises above 75 degrees F, causing the melting. So the cocoa butter may appear on the chocolate height, causing "cocoa bloom." If there is moisture in the air and condensation on the chocolate, the sugars may go to the surface, causing "sugar bloom." This won't hurt the eater, but the taste may be off because it won't be mixed well anymore.

Storing Processed Bars

finding the expiration date of a candy bar

Laura Vryhof/Demand Media

Hershey's says that chocolate is best eaten within a yr of its product, which is the expiration date. Nonetheless, if you don't follow storage guidelines of keeping it between 55 and 60 degrees F in a sealed container, it may not taste skilful even if you swallow it within that yr. Nuts or other ingredients shorten the shelf life as well.

Hershey'southward recommends that chocolate not be refrigerated, because when you accept it out it will form condensation and no longer have the same melting qualities.

Writer Bio

Margaret Dilloway's debut novel, "How to be an American Housewife," is out now and her second, "The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns," will be published in August 2012. She has been a writer for more than 10 years and has written for publications such as "San Diego Family Magazine" and the Huffington Postal service. Dilloway holds a B.A. from Scripps Higher.

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