A system required by the Food and Drug Administration whereby food products are dated as an indicator to shelf life and perishability. Most perishables are stamped with a pull (or sell) date by which the retailer should remove the product if not sold. A freshness date may be found on highly perishable products (like baked goods), stipulating the date when a product will no longer seem fresh. Some products bear a pack date, indicating when it was packaged, although this date is often coded so that only manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers can read it; most retailers will explain the codes if asked. The pack date on some products, such as eggs, is shown by a Julian date (1 through 365), whereby January 1 is number 1, and December 31 is number 365. There's generally leeway for home storage allowed by the open dating system. Obviously, for perishables like dairy products and baked goods, the farther out they're dated, the longer the food will remain useable at home. An expiration date may be found on some longer-lived products and tells the consumer when the manufacturer anticipates the product will no longer likely be useable.