What is the Shelf Life of Gumballs?
Most gumballs have a freshness shelf-life of 18 months from their manufacture date. Gumballs.com has a freshness guarantee on all gumballs and candy. For any processed or manufactured food, the manufacturer is required to indicate a "best by" date or indicate when the product expires. Gumballs are considered an "edible" food, and gumball manufacturers must do the same.
When Were My Gumballs Made?
Gumballs.com carries gumballs from several brands and manufacturers. Following is information about how to determine the manufacture or freshness date by brand:
Bubble King Gumballs (Manufactured by Oak Leaf Confections) Freshness
Below is an example of an Oak Leaf lot number, which is always stamped on the long side of the box, although in some cases it is less legible than the examples here. Below the green "Oak Leaf" box and above the company name "Oak Leaf Confections", there is a row of stamped numbers & letters, followed by a time. The first four digits indicate the manufacture date. The first number is the year of manufacture (in this case 3 means 2013). Thereafter, the next three digits specify which day of the year they were produced, starting with 001 on January 1 (085 in this example below is March 26). The T1 and the time are additional information specific to production. Oak Leaf guarantees gumballs are fresh for 18 months from the manufacture date.
3085T1 means these gumballs were manufactured March 26, 2013
6225T2 means these gumballs were manufactured August 13, 2016
Dubble Bubble Gumballs (manufactured by Concord Confections) Freshness
Dubble Bubble gumballs have a stamped lot number on the white ingredient label, as shown below (D04782). The letter represents a month, starting with A for January (D in the example below means April). The next 2 digits are the date of the month (04) and the third digit is the year of production (7 means 2017). So the example below are gumballs manufactured on April 4, 2017. The last 2 digits are internal to Concord Confections manufacturing and don’t have a bearing on the manufacture date. Concord guarantees gumballs are fresh for 18 months from the manufacture date.
D04782 means these gumballs were manufactured April 4, 2017
Carousel gumballs (manufactured by Ford Gum) Freshness
Carousel gumballs in bulk cases are stamped with a "Best By" (BB) date on each box, as shown below. This example has a BB date of 11/01/2019.
