A Tesco shopper has been left stunned by the supermarket after enquiring about a very peculiar looking expiry date.
Matthew Stock took to twitter to ask the grocer what exactly it meant by the use by date '20140', which left him unable to decode the expiry on his burger relish.
The ominous code gave no explanation as to what the 14th month could be - or in fact whether it meant the year 2040.
"Hello there Tesco, could you please explain this expiry date please?" he asked on twitter, hoping for some elaboration.
But hilariously, his response was even more baffling.
Tesco worker Maggie replied suggesting it could mean 2nd of January 2040 - asking the shopper to submit a photograph of the barcode to help crack the mystery.
The situation then took another turn when she replied suggesting his expiry date could be written in another calendar altogether.
"Hi Matthew, I have had a response from my support team. They have advised the date code on the relish only is the Julian date. 20140 is the 140th day. This translated into the Gregorian calendar is the 20th May 2020. Thanks - Maggie," the worker replied.
Yes, that's right, the expiry date on his relish was written using the Julian calendar - from Roman times - instead of the Gregorian calendar which was introduced in 1582.
But even with this explanation - things just aren't adding up.
The worker claims the 140 is the day of the year counting from Jan 1 - which makes it May 19 counting the leap year - while the 20 stands for the year (2020).
That means his product is due to expire on 19 May 2020, not 20 May, thanks to the extra day in February.
The tweet has since gone viral online with shoppers tweeting the grocer with bizarre codes - asking for Maggie to crack it.
