idunnololzI bought frozen BBQ eel and the best before date says LJ349. What does this mean?
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.
🇸🇵🇪🇨🇺🇱🇦🇹🇪🇷On a Chinese food package, “Best Before LJ349” typically refers to the expiration date, although the code “LJ349” doesn’t follow a standard date format. In this context, “LJ349” is likely a batch code or internal reference used by the manufacturer. The manufacturer uses this code to track production specifics, such as the location or production line and date.
JrockwarThanks GPT, very useful
I thought it was helpful in the sense that there’s likely no way to relate the date code.
I mean, you could have just said that instead of the unhelpful bullshit GPT apparently put out. Or just not commented at all if you didn’t actually have anything helpful to add.
Meh, I thought it was useful, maybe next time I should attribute GPT. No need to get bent up over it. It did attempt to give extra information that wasn’t in the thread at the time.
It’s Japanese not Mandarin too. I see うなぎ - unagi, which is definitely Hiragana
AatubeIt's not a loan word so it's written in Hiragana.
Ah, fair! I only very recently started learning some Japanese, so beyond hiragana and katakana, I recognize basically nothing. I absolutely wouldn’t be able to recognize the others as Cantonese!
skankhunt42I mean, is there something to the right? I think not because the français is below so I guess good luck. I’d personally eat it unless you bought it months ago.
I bought it today. I realized when I was unloading groceries that I forgot to check the best before on it.
At least it doesn’t say LV426…
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆That’s the planet they go to in the original Alien movie.
Late June in the year 349
Actually I have no idea, it’s an odd bunch of initials
Lol, I was going to say last June
Lol, this doesn’t make any sense at all.
It’s Late July obviously
Onno (VK6FLAB)It means:
“Take it back to the retailer and get your money back.”
Or:
“Eat me for a personal food poisoning experience.”
Take your pick…
Chinese dates have two word years that equate to animals (see the options on this date converter), but they don’t have an ‘L’ sound, so none of them are going to start with that. No clue unless it’s a typo.
Chinese Calendar Converter | Convert Chinese Dates to English Dates | Chinese to Gregorian Calendar Converter
Convert Chinese Calendar to English Calendar. Find corresponding Chinese Dates by entering Western (gregorian) dates. Chinese Year to English year converter. Find Chinese Lunar Calendar Years and dates in Western Solar calendar format.
Only the second word is an animal. The first word is a quantifier from the Chinese words for thing A, B, C, D and E.
Do you plan to take a flight at some stage?
Maybe it’s “Lichtjahr”? So as long as you stay within 3*10^15km of earth you should be fine 👍
touristnom the chinese eels, op
in the year of our Lord Jesus 349
That’s pretty soon
Stands for “Alan please add best by date”
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)_/¯
Julian date format, Dec 14th
The LJ prefix is some manufacturer code, not relevant to exp date
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.
The name comes from the name of the person who first proposed the Julian Calendar, Julius Caesar.
Wow. Calendars AND salads? Is there anything that man couldn’t do?
alphacyberrangerHe couldn’t stop himself get stabbed in the back by his homies.
And a haircut!
Don’t forget the child delivery method!
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.
frozenFun fact, Caesar salad is named after the guy who invented it, an Italian living in Mexico at the time.
Caesar crossed the Atlantic? Dang. He just keeps getting more impressive!
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.
I suspect they did it so people wouldn’t be put off from buying something close to expiration.
In fairness to the people I worked for, they only put it on stuff with a short shelf life anyway, so all of it was fairly close to expiring. Also, it was a convenience store. You were expected to eat that stuff right away.
This seems to be the most probable answer although I have no idea what year it is.
halcyoncmdrNot 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?
Are you guessing?
OP was pretty clear on not actually knowing.
Damn this one is tough my best guess LJ is like how the manufacturer tracks it internally or something like that and the 349 could be like eat before the 349th day of that year. Again this is just a guess probably contact the manufacturer to be 100% clear what that means.
clifI 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.
It’s frozen, so it’s edible as long as it stays that way. It’s “good” until it’s too freezer burnt though.
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
hswolfI’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.
Is milk an exception? Because the moo juice always smells a little off to me. I usually have to resort to the take a small swig and pray technique to tell.
pour some in a cup then smell it, sometimes it’s just the dried part by the cap that smells
Huh, that has not occurred to me. Will definitely try this.
KairuByteLeave 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.
You don’t even have to leave it on the counter sometimes. I had a steak a bit ago in the freezer, thawed it, smell test, it had gone bad. Best guess is some point in the store or transit it got stored improperly and it was bad before it got to my freezer. Always check even if in the expiration date food poisoning is awful
Definitely helps some of us remember approximately how old something is.
They assume you store the food properly, obviously.
Hard to do a sniff test on an unopened item in the store. I know that’s not this exact scenario, and best by dates are iffy at best, but I’d like to have some notion of how long the product I’m about to buy has been around.
At the homebrewing store I used to frequent, I always picked through the cooler for the youngest yeast. Then they moved the cooler behind the cash registers and they clerks would just grab the one in the front. Then stupid Northern Brewer shut down all their retail stores.
BizzleHave you considered propagating your own yeast? You’re pretty much already doing it when you make beer, it’s super easy.