Canned foods
Campbell's Soup Batch Code Decoder
Campbell's cans are shelf-stable for two years and are stamped with a four-digit Julian, the production plant code, and the shift so that any lot can be pulled from the supply chain during a recall.
Decode your Campbell's Soup code
Format: YJJJ + plant + shift. Example:
Enter a code above to decode the production date.
Format
YJJJ + plant + shift
Example
6099T1
Year digit 6 + DOY 099 (April 9) + plant T + shift 1.
Typical freshness
2 years
from production date
About Campbell's Soup batch codes
Campbell's Soup Company has used a four-digit Julian production code on its red-and-white can lids since the 1960s. The format varies slightly between the U.S. Camden, Napoleon, Maxton, and Paris (Texas) plants, but the core structure is always the same: one digit for the last digit of the year, three digits for the day of year, then a letter for the plant and a single digit for the shift. A stamp reading 6099T1 means the can was filled on day 099 (April 9) of year 2026 at the T plant during the first shift of the day. Shelf-stable canned soup has a practical quality window of roughly two years from production, so a can with a 6099 code is best consumed before day 099 of 2028 even though it will remain food-safe for considerably longer. Campbell's official position is that properly-stored canned soup "retains best quality" for two years and is safe indefinitely provided the can is not dented, bulging, or leaking. The four-digit Julian does create a ten-year ambiguity — 6099 could refer to any year ending in 6 — but since canned soup is almost never kept for more than five years in practice the ambiguity rarely matters. If you find a can in the back of a pantry that you think might be from the 1990s, look at the typography and the label design rather than the Julian: the code alone cannot distinguish 1996 from 2006 or 2016.
Need the general technique for any package? See how to read a Julian date code. For the regulatory background on lot traceability, read the manufacturing guide, or convert any date on the converter.
This decoder is based on Campbell's Soup's publicly documented code format. Manufacturers can change codes without notice — treat the result as an estimate and check any printed best-by date.