A TikTok traveler’s alarming claim that she was served expired food on an Air Canada flight quickly spiraled into a viral debate, prompting viewers to discuss how airline meals are labeled and stored.
The clip drew thousands of reactions as people tried to piece together what went wrong. But once commenters examined the packaging more closely, the situation took an unexpected but otherwise explainable turn.
A simple meal label ended up sparking a global misunderstanding
Image credits: Kerry Schwartz
When Kerry Schwartz posted her TikTok video on November 13, she didn’t expect to become the internet’s next poster child for American confusion.
In the video, she displayed the printed dates on her Air Canada in-flight meal: 06 11 25 and 05/11/2025. To her American-trained eyes, these looked like June 11, 2025, and May 11, 2025. Thus, she believed she had just eaten something that was prepared months before.
Image credits: Joan Valls/Getty Images
Her caption was brief but dramatic: “When you’re flying Air Canada on Nov 2025… and realize after finishing your meal that the beef they served expired 6 months ago. Pray for me.”
It didn’t take long for the comments to erupt. One viewer wrote: “I’m gonna need a flight attendant to weigh in on this bc there’s no way they keep food frozen for that long and then serve it.”
The true explanation emerged almost immediately. Many countries, Canada included, use the day-month-year format, meaning Schwartz’s “expired” meal was actually labeled 5 November 2025 and 6 November 2025, dates from the very same week she was flying.
Image credits: Kerry Schwartz
Commenters confirmed it plainly: “Girl, those dates are 5th and 6th of November 2025! Everywhere else in the world writes dates as day/month/year.”
With that, the mystery unraveled, and the internet shifted to sharp comedy.
Netizens turned the mix-up into an international comedy hour
Image credits: Kerry Schwartz
Once the misunderstanding became clear, the comments section morphed into a global roast of the TikTok creator.
Users from outside the U.S. chimed in with exasperated amusement: “Well, too bad you didn’t realize the Rest of the world uses date/month/year format!!! LOL,” one commenter wrote.
Image credits: Kerry Schwartz
Others teased Americans and their tendency to consume things that should not be consumed. “So that’s why they write ‘DO NOT DRINK’ on cleaning products in the U.S.”
Then came one of the sharpest and darkest jabs to the TikTok creator’s post. “Question: Are all of the news stories about school sh**tings in America just to try and convince the rest of the world that you have schools at all?”
Image credits: AirCanada
Of course, it was only inevitable that someone would bring up a classic meme: “Now I understand why Kinder Surprise Eggs are banned in the US.”
Some netizens joked that the whole situation should be part of mandatory pre-flight orientation for American travelers. A few even joked that what Schwartz experienced during her Air Canada experience was the most educational part of any airline meal.
The United States’ preferred date format has contributed to the stereotype of Americans living in a bubble
Image credits: comfywithkerry
The United States’ commitment to the mm-dd-yyyy date format has long puzzled international observers, especially since nearly every other country has standardized the alternative, according to The Guardian.
Despite the wide range of date conventions used worldwide, the United States remains the only nation to consistently place the month first, an approach formally known as “middle-endianness.”
The term originates in computer science, where data is ordered by byte size. Systems that place the largest unit first are labeled big-endian, much like countries that begin with the year. Those that place the smallest unit first are small-endian, corresponding to the day-month-year style used across much of the globe.
The terminology itself traces back to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, which satirized political disputes over which end of a boiled egg should be cracked. Computer scientists adopted the metaphor to illustrate how seemingly minor differences can become standardized through tradition or convention.
Image credits: comfywithkerry
As for why the United States adopted and retained this specific ordering, there is no single authoritative explanation.
Numerous discussions across academic sources and online forums point to a mix of historical printing practices, early business conventions, and cultural inertia, but there really is no definitive answer.
Netizens shared their thoughts about the TikToker’s date mix-up on social media
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