On a trip back to the US, a top destination for me is always a grocery store to stock up on things I can’t easily find here in the UK. Usually I’ll toss in a few bags of Nestle
chocolate chips or packages of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They go into the refrigerator to keep them fresh, since I may not use them for some time.
My wife did a defrost of our frig today, and I found two sealed packages of peanut butter cups when we cleared everything out. Were these still good? In the UK, the answer
is easy. Everything — and I mean practically everything I’ve ever seen — has a Use By or Sell By date on it.
Nothing of the sort was on the external package surrounding the 10 individually wrapped cups. Neither did the cup packages have a freshness date. There was a number to
call for consumer information, so I thought I’d give it a try.
The number was pretty efficient. A few voice mail prompts later, I learned how to tell when Hershey products should be eaten by. Look for the ink stamped code, and it
should end with a number and a letter. In my case, the package ended 3L. The number stands for the year — so 2003. The letter stands for the month, A being the first month of
January and so on.
While I was happy to have the info, it would have been much easier if they’d just stamp it without all this coding!
FYI, here are tips and information from Hershey’s on the web about freshness and storage. Keeping it in the
refrigerator is NOT recommended.
