Now that Pesach is behind us and we are back in the stores buying food to stock up our empty pantries, how can we tell if an item was baked after Pesach? 

Some people are careful not to eat any Chametz products that were produced before Pesach, due to concerns that they may not have been sold properly. This explains why in some supermarkets you will see items with stickers stating 'Baked after Pesach' or 'Made with flour that was ground after Pesach'. 

You can check the production date of any product, and in that way see exactly when the item was made. Any date after 9th April 2026 is ok.

Another option is to check the production code of the food product (this is separate from the barcode). The production code is used by the factory for tracking and control purposes. The usual method is to number all the days between January 1st and December 31st, and use this number in the production code.  The day after Pesach, Thursday 9th April, 2026 - כ"ב ניסן, was the 99th day of 2026. The first number 6 or 26 from the left indicates the calendar year 2026. So, its production code should include the digits 06-99, or 699.

Any product with the code on it of 2699 onwards was manufactured after the end of Pesach.
Sometimes additional numbers will appear later, symbolizing the shift and production time.

The date of manufacture of the product indicates the date of completion of its preparation in the factory, or the time of packaging of the product, but it is possible that the flour (and other products) used during production were milled even earlier, especially in products whose preparation process is long, such as beer, which takes about two months to prepare, or other alcoholic beverages.

For those who are careful to eat only products after Passover that contain flour that was not leavened before Passover and are sold to a non-Jew, and who cannot use the production code, manufacturers indicate on the packaging that the flour was "milled after Passover." Or they state "baked from dry flour."

----------

©ShemeshOnline / Chat with the ShemeshBot!
To get updates, news and events in Beit Shemesh, join our no-chatter WhatsApp group!
Choose the way you want to get updates: https://yes.shemesh.co.il/social/