It’s a Date! What the printed numbers on the bottom of your beef jerky mean.

We both know that bag of tasty Werner Snacks probably won’t last much longer than a day once you’ve got your hands on it. However, if you’re curious about the shelf life, we’ve got you covered!

Each of our products features a Best By Date and/or a Julian Date. Both of these help you determine how long the unopened product will last, but they are different from the other. A Best By Date is the date from which we can no longer guarantee the product’s freshness. This is also known as the expiration date. The Julian Date, meanwhile, is the date on which the product was manufactured.

The Julian date may be present in a mm/dd/yy format or as a 5 digit code. Reading this code is easier than it looks: The first two digits indicate the year that the product was made while the last 3 numbers represent the day of the year. For example, if your code reads 20015, the product was manufactured in 2020 on the 15th day of the year (January 15, 2020).

Where each number is located may differ by product, but are typically located below the nutrition facts panel on the back or bottom of the package. If you don’t find the date the first time, don’t give up, it should be there!

Many of our Meat Snack products are made with sea salt, which acts as a natural preservative. Additionally, they are packaged with oxygen absorbers or vacuum sealed to increase their shelf life. Meat snacks with an oxygen absorber included in the packaging are expected to last 18 months unopened, while individually wrapped and vacuum-sealed meat snacks have a shelf life of 12 months. Once opened, our meat snacks items will have the best quality and taste when eaten within 3 days. Want to extend the life of our products even more? While a number of variables can affect how long our product lasts, in general, storing your Werner product in a dry/chilled environment can increase the shelf life of the product.