Should best by/born on date become manditory?

Doesn't have to be a federal decree, just an industry standard and a practice that's widely accepted and carried out. There will come a point, especially with the increased popularity of expensive IPA's that this will be true.

 

Yeah, that "born on" terminology is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me, as well.

In the US, it is a trademarked phrase, owned by Anheuser-Busch and used by them in place of the generic "bottling/canned/packaged on":

Word Mark: BORN ON​

Goods and Services IC 032. US 045 046 048. G & S: beer.​

FIRST USE: 19960722.​

FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19960722​

Serial Number 75071245​

Filing Date March 7, 1996​

Registration Number 2083340 Registration Date July 29, 1997​

Owner (REGISTRANT) Anheuser-Busch, One Busch Place St. Louis MISSOURI​

Type of Mark TRADEMARK​

​

...so it always strikes me as particularly funny/annoying that the usually anti-anything-related-to-Anheuser-Busch beer geekery frequently adopts and uses their trademarked phrase.

 

From a purely practical standpoint, I'd say absolutely not. I'm not comfortable mandating such a practice for a private business.

 

I also think this would be a good idea. I was at a store today and bought two beers from the broken rack. I dont know how long they have been there. I took them home, tried them, and they are fine. So who knows. Its a chance you take