"Best Before" says "11 MA 23"; is it May or March?

I bought a bottle of juice today, and the "Best Before" date it's "11 MA 23". I always see "MA" as for March, but the store staff said that was May.

What is your opinion?

Solution 1:

Looks like the store staff was right, MA=May. This is from an answer to a similar question on a Canadian website:

Ah, I love this time of year.

I get asked this question twice a day at work (grocery store).

It Goes:

JA FE MR AP MA JN JL AU SE OC NO DE

One more year, and I'll have a song a la "Sound of Music"

Other sources seem to confirm that these two-letter month abbreviations were first used in Canada.

Edit: Here's further confirmation from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency:

The bilingual symbols for the months in the durable life date are as follows:

JA for JANUARY
FE for FEBRUARY
MR for MARCH
AL for APRIL
MA for MAY
JN for JUNE
JL for JULY
AU for AUGUST
SE for SEPTEMBER
OC for OCTOBER
NO for NOVEMBER
DE for DECEMBER

Solution 2:

MA refers to May.

As someone already said, the abbreviations are carefully chosen so that they work in both English and French. MA for mai or May. MR for mars or March.