My patience has expired too....

Curious to know when the product I just bought would expire, I looked for an expiry date of some kind on the packaging. I found it and this is what it said:

Guaranteed fresh until printed date

USE BY / UTILISER AVANT MA10
25J206003 15:56

Errr...... some questions. Would someone assume that the product will expire on or before the 25th of January (or June... or July) in the year 206003 at approximately 15:56? Is that Zulu (GMT) time? That's some seriously resilient food. Kinda makes the expiry date a bit of a moot point, no?

But seriously, I know that the last line has nothing to do with the expiry date. What about the MA10 part? Would it really ruin the company financially to buy some extra ink, throw in another letter for the month and be a little clearer on what the number signifies? People are going to wonder whether it's March or May, whether it's 2010 or the tenth of the month. Unless of course they happen to have the secret grocery expiry date decoder ring and know the code. On the bright side, at least the printing was legible.

See that picture? That's how it should be done.