SPECIAL BULLETIN ABOUT OATS, 21 NOV 11 According to the O-U, the Chodosh starting packing date for oats in cereals produced by General Mills is Oct 1. This date also holds for the oats in Malt-O-Meal cereals.
The COR of Toronto has informed us that for Quaker cereals produced in the USA the oats has become Chodosh only with the starting date of Nov 14!! This means that the oats in all such USA- made Quaker cereals in the stores now, at the mid and end of November are sure to be Yoshon. Starting about Nov 27 package codes need to be checked again, as detailed in the Guide. In terms of package codes, the “Best if used by” date on hot Quaker oats cereals is 540 days (about 1 ½ years) after packing. This code for Nov 14 is May 7 2013. For Quaker oats cereals made in Canada and sold in the USA, such as some of the Instant Oats, (check package to see if made in Canada) the Chodosh packing date is Sept 27. The 540 day code is March 20 ‘13. Remember that this only applies to oats in the cereals. If the cereal also contains wheat, whether wheat starch or other wheat products, the wheat starting date may be earlier such as Aug 15, as noted in the Guide. Unless informed otherwise by reliable sources, our recommendation the Chodosh oats starting date for other companies remains the chumra estimate of Jul 26.
