Canada Dry Expiration Date (How To Read & More)
Have you been trying to read the expiration date of a Canada Dry soda, but you keep getting confused?
Unfortunately, Canada Dry sodas do not come with defined expiration dates. Instead of an expiration date, you would see a stamp with the manufacture date.
But no worries, this article will teach you how to determine the expiration date.
You read the expiration date of a Canada dry soda from the manufacture date. The first two digits are the month, the next three are the day, and the final digit is the year. Then you count from the manufacture date to see if the shelf life period has been exhausted.
Furthermore, this article explains how to read Canada Dry expiration dates and more.
How To Read Canada Dry Expiration Dates?
You read the expiration dates of Canada dry by doing simple math.
First, note that the shelf life of diet sodas is 13 weeks, and that of a regular soda is 39 weeks.
After that, you decode the manufacture date. They are stamped on the bottom of the can.
In the case of bottle packaging, you will find it on the inside of the cover or the neck.
The manufacture date is the first line of numbers. Not to be confused with the time and plant code.
The first two digits of the manufacture date refer to the month.
The digits start from 01 for January through to 12 for December. Following them are three digits that refer to the year’s day.
The day of the year is out of the 365 days. Finally, you have the last digit, which refers to the year of manufacture.
So, a manufacture date like “12 337 2” would be December 3, 2022. However, there is an alternative to knowing the date of expiration.
You could call their customer care number and ask the customer care representative.
The representative will provide you with all the information about the product.
Furthermore, you should note that the expiration date on a Canada dry depends on two things.
Firstly, the country you reside in. Countries have varying branding and safety rules.
Secondly, the packaging type, Cans have stamps on the bottom and bottles in the cap or neck.
Sodas don’t have an exact expiry date because they don’t expire. Instead, they lose their fizziness which makes them taste quite weird.
For instance, a bottle of soda has expired if you don’t see bubbles around the neck.
Also, if a CAN of soda doesn’t make a hissing sound when opened, it’s expired.
Moreover, sodas sell fast and have a fairly long shelf life. Therefore, it is safe to assume these factors reduce the number of expired soft drinks sold.
Are Canada Dry Expiration Dates Coded?
No, Canada dry expiration dates aren’t coded expiry dates. Canada dry does not even put expiration dates on their products.
You only see the manufacture date as a code in MMDDDY format. The next line of code you’d see is a combination of letters and numbers.
This line also doesn’t tell the expiry date. It indicates the production date and the plant where the manufacturers made the soda.
You use the manufacture date to determine when the soda would lose its fizziness and flavor.
When a soda has lost fizziness, it indicates that the soda has expired. Seriously, can we call a soda that has lost its fizziness a soda even?
Canada dry soda would lose its fizziness faster if stored in a hot place.
People living in the tropics may find soda stored at room temperature expiring faster.
You can preserve the carbonation by keeping it in the refrigerator till it’s opened. Since soft drinks don’t expire, they don’t bear an expiry date.
You can find expiry dates on perishable products and drugs. Interestingly, quite a lot of manufacturers use coded expiry dates.
Coded dates appear on boxes of food and some other shelf products.
These codes help manufacturers track their products interstate and help in the case of a product recall.
A recall is when the consumer or manufacturer notices product defects. These defects could harm consumers or present legal issues for the manufacturers.
The coded dates help them know where the products were shipped.
The dates, thereby, do the job of returning them to the plant they were made easier.
Can You Drink Canada Dry Soda After the Expiration Date?
Yes, you can drink Canada Dry soda after it has expired. You can drink diet soda for three months after it must have expired and regular soda for up to 9 months.
The only problem would be the loss of flavor and fizziness. No harm will come to you if they’re still within 3-9 months of expiration.
Nonetheless, if it’s past the months listed above, you might develop mild symptoms of food poisoning.
Symptoms like; stomach ache and sometimes nausea. However, all these symptoms might be your mind playing tricks on you.
Even the USDA has stated that drinking expired soda poses no threat to your health.
Although you can drink expired soda, we’ve already established that you won’t like the taste.
The bad taste is due to the sweeteners breaking down. Quite ironic that what made the soda taste so great would make it not good.
Also, once you open a Canada dry soda or any soda, the expiry date will be nullified. The opened soda only has a short time before it “expires.”
You can prolong your opened soda’s expiry date by ensuring it stays refrigerated.
Make sure it only stays refrigerated. If it gets frozen, you will get the opposite result.
How long the soda gets preserved might also come down to the packaging used.
Below is a table showing how long you’ve got to enjoy an expired soda based on packaging and method of storage.
| Packaging | Refrigerator | Room Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Bottle (opened) | 2-5 days | 1-2 days |
| Bottle (sealed) | 6-9 months | 5-8 months |
| CAN (opened) | 12-24 hours | 12 hours |
| CAN (sealed) | 6-9 months | 5-8 months |
The table above is for regular soda. The U.S department of agriculture has informed the public that they can only consume diet soda three months past the expiration date.
Nevertheless, there have been confirmations of people drinking sodas that have expired for years.
They reported that it tasted just fine. So, there might be a few variations to the table. They also never reported having developed any illness whatsoever.
Furthermore, the taste of the expired soda might be influenced by the;
- Firstly, how much exposure the soda packaging had to sunlight.
- Secondly, deformity from handling and shipping.
The factors above might make it expire faster than the proposed expiry date.
Be sure to check for the signs of an expired soda, as stated in this article, asides from using the manufacture date.
Summary
In summary, you only need two things to read a Canada Dry soda expiration date;
- Decode the manufacture date.
- Then calculate the shelf life from the manufacture date.
Once you do this, you can tell if your soda has expired or not. However, it doesn’t matter health-wise.
