Month, day or year? Reading dates like 10/26 and 04/10/26

What does a two-number date like 10/26 mean?

A date with only two numbers has two possible readings: a month and a day (October 26) or a month and a year (October 2026). Read as a month and year, the date runs to the last day of that month, so 10/26 means through October 31, 2026, and it hasn't passed until November 1. Most of the time, two things settle it: the phrase in front of the date and how long the food keeps.

The phrase in front of the date

The logic comes from how long the food keeps. Fresh food needs a day, because its whole life is a few days or weeks. Long-life food doesn't, so a month and year are enough. Several countries write this into law: EU and UK rules, Australia and New Zealand's food code and India's labeling rules all require the day on foods that keep up to about three months and allow just the month and year on foods that keep longer. The EU even has a phrase for it: a date without a day is introduced with “best before end.” The US sets no format, but the same reasoning works on a US label: if one reading is a year or more away and the food is fresh, the other reading is the date.

In day-first countries, 10/26 can only be October 2026

On a product labeled for the UK, the EU, Australia and most other countries, numeric dates put the day before the month. Read that way, 10/26 would be the 10th day of month 26, which doesn't exist. So on those labels a two-number date with a second number over 12 is always a month and year. A pair that does work as a day and month, like 26/10 or 10/11, is the 26th of October or the 10th of November.

When the “day” can't be a day

Some two-number dates can only be a month and a year, because the second number isn't a real day in that month. February never has a 30th or 31st, and April, June, September and November have no 31st. So 02/30, 02/31, 04/31, 06/31, 09/31 and 11/31 are all month-and-year dates: 06/31 is June 2031, good through June 30, 2031. Any number over 31 works the same way. From 2032 on, every two-digit year is over 31, so a two-number date can't be read as a day at all.

The 01/30 case

With 01/30, the two readings are years apart: January 30 of the coming year, or January 2030, good through January 31, 2030. Here the food decides. Milk or fresh meat can't keep until 2030, so on those it's January 30. On canned food, freeze-dried meals or anything marked BB, best before or EXP, it's January 2030.

Two-number dates from 2026 to 2032

Year first: 2026/10 and 2026-10

When a four-digit year comes first, as in 2026/10 or 2026-10, the second number is the month: October 2026, good through October 31, 2026. There's nothing to work out. Some countries write every date this way. Japanese labels, for example, put the year first (2026.10.31), and Canadian best-before dates start with the year when they show one (see Canada's month codes below).

Holding a SELL BY 10/26 carton? When October 26 is less than about three months away, FreshScan shows it and the end of October 2026 side by side, and you tap the right one. Next to BB or EXP, it reads 10/26 as the end of October 2026.

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Three numbers: is 04/10/26 April 10 or October 4?

On a product made for the US market, 04/10/26 means April 10, 2026. On a product made for Europe, the UK and most other countries, it means 4 October 2026. If either of the first two numbers is over 12, it's the day, and the question is settled.

Who writes dates which way

The US has no federal format because it has almost no federal dating rules at all. USDA notes that product dating isn't required by federal regulation except for infant formula, so each company prints dates its own way. Many US brands sidestep the problem by spelling out the month.

The EU is the opposite. Its food information regulation says a best-before or use-by date “shall consist of the day, the month and possibly, the year, in that order and in uncoded form.” A European product that uses numbers only is day first, by law. More countries, including India, the Philippines and Japan, are in expiry date formats by country.

Clues on the package

1. A number over 12. 13/10/26 or 10/13/26 can only be read one way. Check every date on the package: a packed-on date like 09/20/26 printed by the same machine tells you its order.
2. Where it was made and for whom. “Product of Italy,” an EU address, a UK importer or a label in German or French points to day first. A US distributor and English-only packaging point to month first. Imported products sold in the US sometimes keep the origin's format, so this is a clue, not proof.
3. The phrase in front of it. MHD, DDM, À CONSOMMER or BEST BEFORE END are European phrasing; a European phrase almost always comes with a day-first date.
4. Dots as separators. 04.10.26 is typical of European printing. It's a hint, not a rule.
5. A year up front. If a four-digit year comes first (2026-10-04), the order is year, month, day; there's no ambiguity.

The plausibility check

When the package gives no clue, the calendar usually does. Ask two questions of each reading: is it in the future, and does it fit how long this food lasts?

The second question matters when both readings are still ahead of you. If a pack of fresh chicken could mean next week or next month, it's the nearer date: FDA's storage chart gives raw chicken 1–2 days in the fridge. For fresh meat, poultry and fish, the day you bought it is a better guide than a date you can't read; the shelf life chart lists fridge times for each.

The fourth row is the one no rule can settle. When both readings are plausible, use the earlier one. For a can of tomatoes, a month either way makes no difference to safety; it's a quality date. For a perishable food, the earlier date is the careful choice.

When you still can't tell

• Go with the earlier reading, and plan to use the food by then.
• Look for a phone number or website on the package; manufacturers answer this question routinely.
• Remember what kind of date it is. Most dates are about quality, not safety (see date labels explained). If a perishable food smells, looks or feels wrong, the date doesn't matter. When in doubt, throw it out.
• Type the whole line, phrase included, into the expiration date decoder to see both readings listed together, then tap either one to see how many days away it is and the reminders FreshScan would send.

Canada: year-first dates and two-letter month codes

Canada has its own order. Under CFIA's rules, a best-before date shows the year first (at least its last two digits, and only when it's needed for clarity, such as when the date falls in the next year), then the month, then the day in numbers. The words “best before” and “meilleur avant” go with the date. The month has to be written in both English and French or given as a two-letter code that works in both languages, so a best-before date made for Canada shouldn't show the month as a number.

So 26 OC 04 is October 4, 2026, 27 JL 15 is July 15, 2027, and JN 28, with no year, is the next June 28. CFIA's own example, BEST BEFORE 17 JA 30 MEILLEUR AVANT, is January 30, 2017. Three pairs trip people up:

• MA and MR. MA is May (mai). MR is March (mars).
• AL and AU. AL is April (avril), not August. August is AU (août).
• JN and JL. JN is June (juin). JL is July (juillet).

What BB/MA means

BB/MA is short for “best before / meilleur avant.” The MA here is the French phrase, not the month of May. In BB/MA 27 MA 31, the first MA is the phrase and the second is the month: May 31, 2027. Like any best-before date in Canada, it's about the quality of the unopened food, not a safety cutoff. Once you open the package, the date no longer applies.

PACKAGED ON / EMBALLÉ LE

Food packaged in the store with a durable life of 90 days or less, like meat cut and wrapped at the counter, may carry a packaged-on date instead of a best-before date. The regulations word it “packaged on / empaqueté le”; on labels you'll also see PACKED ON / EMBALLÉ LE. It uses the same year-month-day order, and the store has to give the durable life, how many days it keeps, on the label or on a sign next to the food. That date is when the food was wrapped, so count forward from it rather than treating it as the deadline. More in packed-on dates vs the expiration date.

Canada's “expiration date” is a separate thing. It's required only on a short list of foods, such as infant formula, meal replacements and nutritional supplements, and they can't be sold after it.

How FreshScan handles it

FreshScan reads numeric dates in your iPhone's regional order by default: month first if your phone is set to the US, day first for most other regions. You can override it under Settings → Scanning → Numeric dates: Automatic, Month first (09/17) or Day first (17/09).

Two-number dates. Next to BEST BY, BB, BEST BEFORE or EXP, a date like 10/26 is read as the month and year and marked “end of month”. Next to SELL BY or USE BY, it could be October 26 or the end of October 2026: when October 26 is less than about three months away, FreshScan shows both, marked “year not printed” and “end of month”, and you tap the right one. A space instead of the slash (BEST BEFORE 10 26, SELL BY 10 26) is read the same way. A 10/26 with no date phrase next to it isn't read; if FreshScan doesn't pick up a date, you can type it in. A year-first 2026/10 or 2026-10 is read as the end of October 2026 even without a phrase, and FreshScan asks you to confirm it.

Three-number dates. When a full date like 04/10/26 could go either way, FreshScan usually shows a card that says the date “can be read two ways” with both full dates, and you tap the right one. A reading that has already passed can still be listed, even at the top, so check which date is still ahead of you before you tap. A full date with a number over 12 (13/10/26), a spelled-out month or a year-first date is read directly.

Short dates without a year work differently. A use-by or sell-by date like USE BY 10/11 is read in your numeric-date order only (October 11 month first, 10 November day first) and marked “year not printed”, so on an imported product, check it before you save.

Canadian codes. Next to a date phrase such as BEST BEFORE, MEILLEUR AVANT, BB/MA or EXP, 26 OC 04 is October 4, 2026 and JN 28 is the next June 28. Without one, only the full year, code, day shape (26 OC 04) is read, and FreshScan asks you to confirm it. Codes like MA, AU and DE are also everyday words, so a code that ends a word or runs into a longer date (JUSQU'AU 04.10.26, ANTES DE 12/2026) isn't read as a month. Check the date FreshScan shows before you save.

Other apps handle these dates their own way, and many don't read the printed date at all; see our expiry date tracker app comparison.

Questions people ask