Following up on decoding the Mars code, here’s the Nestle code, thanks to Reader Dave.
Nestle uses something called the Julian code. The first four digits of the code on the wrapper will give you the date the product was manufactured.
Julian code is rather difficult to read on the fly, but here goes: the first digit represents the last digit of the year. The next three numbers represent the day of the year.
My Baby Ruth bar says:
602557471 D/A
That means that it was made on the January 25, 2006. (That was an easy one.)
My Nestle Crunch bar says:
52941211 A5 7A
Hmm, anything that begins with a 5 sounds kind of bad in October. This one was made on October 21, 2005. Almost a year old.
My 100 Grand bar says:
5334574823 6L
Again with the 2005 ... but at least the second number “334” is pretty large. That’d be November 30, 2005.
A quick way to calculate the month is to divide the three digit number by 30. If you can’t do that in your head, try dividing by 10 (moving the decimal place once slot) and then by 3. For the last one it gives you the approximation of November ... which is probably all you really wanted to know anyway.
For the record, the true Julian day number is a lot more complex and tracks the number of days since 4713 ... kinda like stardates!
Related Candies
- What does that Hershey’s code mean?
- What does that Mars code mean?
SUPERB
YUMMY 
TASTY 
WORTH IT 
TEMPTING 
PLEASANT 
BENIGN 
UNAPPEALING 
APPALLING 
INEDIBLE 
