California has banned the use of "sell by" food labels on packaging, a move aimed at reducing consumer confusion and the resulting food waste. The new law, which went into effect Wednesday, requires manufacturers selling food in the state to use either a "Best if Used By" label for peak quality or a "Use By" label for product safety, or both.
Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the author of the bill, stated that food manufacturers can choose which of the standardized labels to implement. California is the first state in the U.S. to standardize food labels in this manner, a legislative effort that began in 2024 with the goal of decreasing food waste and associated climate-warming emissions. New York lawmakers have recently approved a similar bill awaiting the governor's signature.
Legislation addressing food labeling has also been introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and South Carolina, though it has not yet passed in those states. According to Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the bill, food labels are the primary driver of household food waste. He noted that "sell by" dates have also posed a challenge for food banks in California, as people often interpret these dates as indicating expiration.
"We don’t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons of money to solve this. We just need companies to use the same words across brands," Lapis said.
Reports indicate that there are over 50 different date labels on packaged food sold in stores, with the information largely unregulated and frequently unrelated to food safety. Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste, explained that consumers often become confused and default to discarding food based on these dates. "Consumers get confused and they just default to assuming that whatever date is on the package means ‘don’t eat it and throw it away’," Chandran said.
California and New York's adoption of food labeling laws has bolstered the movement toward a national standard. A bipartisan bill proposing uniform food labels is currently pending in Congress. A decade ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended that food sellers transition to "Best if Used By" labeling. Currently, infant formula is the only product with federally regulated date labels.
Without federal regulations dictating label content, these stamps have contributed to consumer confusion and, according to the Food and Drug Administration, nearly 20% of the nation's food waste. In California alone, this amounts to approximately 6 million tons of unexpired food discarded annually.
Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, acknowledged that some grocers needed to revise their labeling systems but stated the association has been supportive of the change. "a win-win where we can reduce food waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler," Rose commented, adding that shoppers will continue to see older labels in stores for several months as products with existing labels are sold through.