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English Language & Usage"Best Before" says "11 MA 23"; is it May or March?
[+34] [5] Ye Liu
[2011-04-18 14:17:32]
[ meaning-in-context dates ]
[ https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/21611/best-before-says-11-ma-23-is-it-may-or-march ]

I bought a bottle of juice today, and the "Best Before" date it's "11 MA 23". I always see "MA" as for March, but the store staff said that was May.

What is your opinion?

(16) That they should use MAR or MAY. And if that one character is so very important, then MR or MY if not the number 03 or 05. MA is much too ambiguous to be of use to the consumer. - snumpy
(21) What's two months, give or take, if the year is 2023? (2123? 5823?) - RegDwigнt
(2) @roe: but where's the fun in that? (My whole point is that the date is ambiguous in more than one way.) - RegDwigнt
(1) @RegDwight; :) sorry, that one slipped past me.. Then again, maybe it's just part of an address somewhere in Boston? - falstro
(5) @jasper most languages that use March/May use latin months so they are very similar. The irony here is that we often use the word for months to avoid the AE/BE ambiguity of which order the date and month go in! - mgb
ISO Date format would've been nice. :) - Mateen Ulhaq
@muntoo: It would be, but even here in Sweden were we have adopted the ISO standard for dates, the date markings on food doesn't follow that. It's common to see something like "100911", and there is no way of telling for certain what's what... - Guffa
@snumpy: Not when the good (commodity) involved is so highly perishable that it has a shelf-life of a month or less. - Jimi Oke
(11) Just drink it. If you live, it meant May. - Jason Swett
That is so obvioously nonsene, it's prolly illegal. What else might matter, please? - Robbie Goodwin
[+42] [2011-04-18 15:21:30] Callithumpian [ACCEPTED]

Looks like the store staff was right, MA=May. This is from an answer to a similar question on a Canadian website [1]:

Ah, I love this time of year.

I get asked this question twice a day at work (grocery store).

It Goes:

JA FE MR AP MA JN JL AU SE OC NO DE

One more year, and I'll have a song a la "Sound of Music"

Other sources [2] seem to confirm that these two-letter month abbreviations were first used in Canada.

Edit: Here's further confirmation from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency [3]:

The bilingual symbols for the months in the durable life date are as follows:

JA for JANUARY
FE for FEBRUARY
MR for MARCH
AL for APRIL
MA for MAY
JN for JUNE
JL for JULY
AU for AUGUST
SE for SEPTEMBER
OC for OCTOBER
NO for NOVEMBER
DE for DECEMBER

[1] http://forums.redflagdeals.com/expiry-date-costco-571466/
[2] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Abbreviation_for_march_and_may_in_Canada
[3] http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/ch2ae.shtml#a2_11

(19) I don't think so - in Canada they go: Wi Wi Wi Wi Wi RR (road repair) Wi Wi Wi Wi Wi - mgb
(4) Seconding this answer — I moved to Canada this year and met the two-letter codes the first time, and inquired and found out what they mean. But whatever committee decided that MA was better than MY really should have had their acronym license revoked… - PLL
(37) @jasper: Maybe because these abbreviations also work in French? MR: MaRch and MaRs, MA: MAy and MAi, but not MY. - user4438
(5) @Jan Fabry +1 for your francophone observation. - rajah9
@Jan: Good call. See the latest edit to my answer. - Callithumpian
(2) Blame Canada? (nsfw) - Ankur Banerjee
(2) @Ankur: No blame here. As a necessary bilingual code it's brilliant (Too bad it doesn't work for Spanish). Maybe it will have the same success as the two-letter state abbreviations imposed by the U.S. Postal Service. - Callithumpian
@Callithumpian The US state abbreviations were successful, but it took quite a while and there was a huge ruckus from people who didn't like the abbreviations used for their states. Fortunately people are likely less attached to month abbreviations. - Matthew Frederick
(6) The bilingualism also explains the use of "AL" instead of "AP" for April. - Dan
@Matthew: And a Taurus from Alabama or Massachusetts would get a double whammy. - Callithumpian
"As a necessary bilingual code" I'd say "necessary" is a bit far. "05" works fine in almost every language. - Random832
Can anyone explain why the Canadian government believes it's citizens cannot be expected to understand month numbers? - RedGrittyBrick
(1) @RedGrittyBrick: To reduce ambiguity? Canada seems to use the YMD, DMY and MDY formats, probably depending on the language, so "11-05-09" can be interpreted in multiple ways. - user4438
(1) @Jan: I see your point. It would be more persuasive if 12 MA 11 could not be interpreted in as many different ways. Can't Canada use an international standard like ISO 8601 or be imaginative (12V2011?) - RedGrittyBrick
@RedGrittyBrick: The Canadian government uses YYYY-MM-DD as a standard. Maybe they allowed the two-digit year too to prevent massive printer upgrade costs for the manufacturers around the year 2000? You can't control how every individual uses dates in their daily communication, so it's better to use a format that is known to most people. 12 MA 11 can only be interpreted as "May 11, 2012" or "May 12, 2011" (two ways instead of three), and in many cases it will be clear which value makes most sense as the year. - user4438
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[+11] [2011-04-18 18:16:02] Turtle

MA refers to May.

As someone [1] already said, the abbreviations are carefully chosen so that they work in both English and French. MA for mai or May. MR for mars or March.

[1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/21611/best-before-says-11-ma-23-is-it-may-or-march#comment36182_21621

(1) Maymay! Maymay! - Mateen Ulhaq
oh, French. now we know who caused this - Hui Zheng
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[+8] [2011-04-18 14:57:56] RedGrittyBrick

What is your opinion?

It is ambiguous for English speakers. From other answers here I see it causes widespread confusion. Any standard that causes widespread confusion is probably not a good standard.

Off-topic digression:

In the part of the world I inhabit, "Best before" dates are about peak flavour/texture/aroma, they are not about safety.

  Best before     About flavour and texture
  Use by          Health and safety
  Sell by         Shop stock rotation
  Display until   Shop stock rotation

From a BBC article [1]

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13115226

@jasper: If "best before" were about safety, the vendors that use "best before" would already be sued out of existence. - AnT stands with Russia
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[+4] [2011-04-18 15:17:01] Jimi Oke

You bought a bottle of juice today (04/18/11) and the best-before (BB) date reads "11 MA 23". Well, no reputable store would display a bottle of juice—a highly perishable food—that is over a month past its BB date. Thus, the MA in the BB date must stand for May.


(6) Perhaps they are shifty and keep the expired MA products around to reshelve in a month... "MA means, uh, what month is it again? April? Then it means May." - MrHen
It could have been 11 March, 2023. In fact, it could still mean 11 May, 2023. - Erik P.
I don't think a bottle of juice could last that long! - Jimi Oke
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[+1] [2017-05-07 03:58:46] Kaz

Watch out! Sometimes MA on expiry dates on Canadian products is actually neither March nor May, but in fact an abbreviation for "meilleur avant": French for "best before".


Watch out for crazy canucks! - pabrams
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