In my idle (ha!) time I have been trying to decipher the batch coding
system used to label the Totally Ferret bags.  Here's what I've come up
with entirely on my own.  Do not take this as necessarily correct, but it
seems to work.
 
Example code: F0R13A
The first letter represents the month of the year in which the food was
manufactured.  A=January, B=February, etc.  In the example, the food was
made in F=June.  Brand new food made in July is labeled G.
 
The second digit is the year of manufacture.  0 means 2000 in the above
example.  A bag of Senior food I have is labeled H9R13A, which means it
was made in Aug 99.
 
I haven't a clue what "R" means.  It's in all the codes I've seen so far.
 
The next two digits are the day of manufacture.  It may be the first day a
batch is started, or when it is finished; I don't know how long it takes to
make.  The food in the example was made on June 13.  I've seen batches made
on the 1st, 10th, 13th, 19th and 30th day of the month.  16th and 27th have
also been reported.
 
Haven't a clue what the "A" means.  It is also in all the codes I've seen.
 
Now, you actually have enough info to determine the expiration date, which
is 15 months after manufacture.  The F0R13A food has an expiration date of
Sept 13, 2001.  The Senior food H9R13A expires Nov 13, 2000.  (Hmm what
happens with food made on Nov 30?  Does it expire on Feb 30??)
 
Anyone see any codes that don't conform?  I'm especially interested in
codes without the R or A, which may give a clue to their meaning.
 
Linda Iroff
who really should be getting more sleep instead of playing with codes
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3130]