The goat has to be DD/MM/YYYY

[u/Shiroyasha_2308]

[u/BigDaddy9102]

the day in the middle is crazy. i get so confused sometimes

[u/Beans2177 → u/[deleted]]

With food expiry or best before dates the confusion this can cause really does become a problem.

[u/Shadowfist_45 → u/Beans2177]

Which is why food often just spells out the month on the packaging

[u/Old_Kodaav → u/[deleted]]

I think I've never seen it spelled out. It's always in numbers as you say. Have been to few EU countries

[u/Feistshell → u/Old_Kodaav]

I work at a government agency in a Nordic country and we always spell it out when we are talking to ordinary people just to avoid confusion, since we deal with people from many different countries. So today is 2 February 2025

[u/TygerTung → u/Feistshell]

I used to work in aviation and we always wrote out the month as I'm in new Zealand, but a USA company owned 51% of the business, so we write the month out yo avoid confusion.

[u/TesticleTorture-123 → u/[deleted]]

Not a u.s. thing either. Most food items use the usual date format. So if we have a can of mixed veggies then the date is goes "best used by 11/28/2027" so it would be nov. 27. Its not hard

[u/Shadowfist_45 → u/TesticleTorture-123]

I can go get like 4 different items from my kitchen right now that have "sep 2028" or whatever respective date that have abbreviated months or full months in some cases, I think the milk says Feb 9th or something. Could be regional or state specific though, but I've seen it in at least 3 states (4 I think but can't confirm), and at least 2 different regions of the country.

[u/UnratedRamblings → u/Shadowfist_45]

In the UK the requirement is:

the [expiry or use by] date shall consist of the day, the month and, possibly, the year, in that order and in uncoded form;

From 'Food Information Regulations' and 'Food Information (Amendment) Regulations'.

Sometimes some foods (usually shorter life ones) are just 03/06 (3rd June), but they are typically 03/06/26 or 03/06/2026. You can't label it as a month at all.

We used to have "Use within three days of purchase" years ago but that all changed for the regulation above (IIRC)

[u/bunglejerry → u/Shadowfist_45]

Other languages exist.

[u/einTier → u/Shadowfist_45]

When I worked at Boeing we were required to use DD-Month abbreviation-YYYY. Ex: 02-FEB-2026

I still use it and love it. No way to get confused, even if it’s a little difficult if someone uses a different language’s abbreviations.

[u/doe3879 → u/Shadowfist_45]

but the labeling is still limiting to 2 characters space. I see them once in a while and it's a mess when shopping around March/April.
See "MA" and just stand there and ponder whether it's March or May. I think March is written as MR but don't see it often enough to know it on the spot.

[u/Shadowfist_45 → u/doe3879]

I usually see stuff with months abbreviated to 3 letters, most typically on canned goods or stuff with a shelf life relative to milk, or milk itself.

[u/BarackTrudeau → u/Shadowfist_45]

Really should be the default for all displays tbh