Is That Can of Beans Still Good? Here’s How to Tell!

Spot a Great Deal on some Heinz Baked Beans? Here’s How to Decipher the Production Code!

Sometimes when shopping at a great discount place I wonder exactly HOW OLD ? are those tins of beans I’m about to pick up. Heinz Beans, like many tinned products do not have a best before date stamped on them, but a production code. This is what the letters and numbers mean on the tin:
From the Heinz Beans site:

A can of HEINZ^® Original Beans in Tomato Sauce might have a code that
reads LBV 1229 08:32.

The letter ’L’ indicates this can of beans was filled in our Leamington, Ontario factory.

The next two letters indicate the variety code, in this case ’BV’ is ’original beans in tomato sauce’.

The first three numbers (122) represents the 122nd day of the year, or May 1st.

The fourth number (9) represents 2009, the year of production.

The final four numbers (08:32) indicate the hour, in 24-hour time, or 8:32 a.m.

This can was made on May 1st, 2009. The recommended best before date for this can is therefore May 1st, 2011.

I’m not sure if all tinned goods follow the same production code pattern. Don’t you wish they would keep it simple and stamp a best before date instead?
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Contact Heinz Beans through their Site