Clark Bar

Many candies are coded with expiration dates secret. It makes it easy for candy outdated as to be purchased by unsuspecting consumers.

Several major candy companies have their own codes of special meetings, and we found some for you! With a little practice, you will be able to tell if the field chocolate bar you want to buy is fresh or not.

Ferrera Pan Candy Company, maker of Red Hots, Lemonheads, eliminate them, and Boston baked beans, post the production date, not the expiration date on the box. Even after we tell you how to decipher the date is for you to see if you think the candy is worth buying. They do not indicate the life of their boxes of candy, but we know that the Red Hots have a life expectancy of two years! A sample of six-digit code on a box of Lemonheads is: 8C0432. The 8 stands for 2008. C is for Mars (A is January, February B), and 04 means the fourth day of the month. The last two figures are of no interest to us.

Necco, or society Candy New England, uses the Julian calendar date of production coding. Some of their sweets are: Necco Wafers, Mary Janes, Sky Bar, Clark Bar, Banana Splits and Candy Buttons on paper. Necco told us that the Sky Bar has a lifespan of eighteen months. They also use a six-digit code. This is an example: 320 772. The first digit and last for one company, and does not interest us. The figures second, third and fourth day of production, according to the Julian calendar. That would be July 26. The fifth digit, which is 7, is the last digit of the year of production. The production date is July 26, 2007.

(A simplified compressed reference guide for the Julian calendar is: 001-031 January, February 032-059, March 060-090 April 091-120, May, 121-151, 152-181 in June, July 182-212, August 213 243, 244-273 September, October, 274-304, 305-334 in November, December 335 and -365).

Farley & Sathers, officials laughter, jujube, Jujyfruit and now and later have their secret code, too. This is the date of production. Look at the code: 8345CX. The first digit is the year of production, so it's 2008. The next three digits, 345 is the Julian calendar. That would be December 11. The last two letters are of no use to us.

Zagnut, Zero, Good & Plenty, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are all manufactured by Hershey's. They use a simple code expires on their candy. It consists of a number that indicates the last number of years, and a letter that is for the month. A January, February B March C, 8C etc. would mean that the candy expires in March 2008.

Wrigley has a six-digit expiry means DDMMYY. 280,409 would mean that you should chew Juicy Fruit gum on your or before April 28, 2009.

Cambridge Brands, a subsidiary of Tootsie Roll, made of candy such as Junior Mints, Tootsie Rolls, points and Charleston Chew. They stamp the date of production and use of a code consisting of seven digits and letters. A L047325 code is on a box of mints Junior. L stands for the month, which would be December. 04 is the day, and 7 would be 2007. The last three digits are of no interest to us. This candy was built on December 4, 2007.

Nestle, maker of Chunky, Wonka Bars, Nerd Ropes, Baby Ruth, Laffy Taffy, using a production code. Look: 7144BWB18G. The first 7 digits, is the last digit of production year. 144 is the Julian day of manufacture which is May 24 The remaining digits and letters are of no value to us.

Now that you know how to decipher the secret code of candy, you can do some detective work. You'll never buy candy out of date again!