California moves to ban ‘Sell By’ food labels to cut food waste and standardize date labels

Has the "Sell By" date become little more than a suggestion? For some shoppers, it signals that a product belongs in the trash, while others believe the food may still be safe to consume for a few more days.

The debate plays out in homes across California, where the wide variety of phrases printed on food packaging has long left consumers confused about whether a product is simply past its peak quality or genuinely unsafe to eat.

In a bid to reduce that confusion and the enormous amount of food waste created when perfectly edible products are discarded prematurely, the state is introducing a new food labeling law that takes effect on Wednesday.

The new law bans the use of "Sell By" labels on consumer-facing food packaging. Experts say the label is intended only as a guide for retailers on how long to display products on store shelves and is not an indicator of whether the food is still safe to consume.

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Instead, manufacturers will now use two standardized labels: "Best if Used By" to indicate peak quality and "Use By" to indicate product safety.

Food manufacturers can choose to use either label or both, said Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the author of the bill.

California becomes first state to standardize food labels

California is the first state in the US to standardize food date labels after the law was approved in 2024. The move is aimed at reducing food waste and lowering the state's climate-warming emissions.

New York lawmakers have also approved a similar measure, which is currently awaiting the signature of Governor Kathy Hochul.

Similar food-labeling legislation has also been introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina, although the proposals have not yet been passed in those states.

Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at California Against Waste, which co-sponsored the bill, said confusing food labels are among the leading causes of household food waste. He added that "Sell By" labels have also posed challenges for food banks in California because many people mistakenly assume the food has expired once that date has passed.

He told AP, “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,” he said.

According to a 2022 report on food waste by the University of Maryland, packaged food sold in stores carries more than 50 different types of date labels. Most of these labels are largely unregulated and, in many cases, are not directly linked to food safety.

“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’,” said Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste.

Chandran noted that the adoption of food-labeling laws in California and New York has strengthened the push for a nationwide standard. A bill seeking to introduce uniform food labels is currently awaiting approval in Congress. Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture has, for nearly a decade, recommended that food manufacturers adopt the "Best if Used By" label.

At present, infant formula is the only food product whose date labeling is regulated at the federal level.

With no federal rules dictating what information food date labels should include, the varying stamps have fueled consumer confusion and account for roughly 20% of the nation's food waste, according to the Food and Drug Administration. In California alone, about 6 million tons of unexpired food are thrown away every year.

Supporters of the law believe the new labeling system will be a win-win by helping consumers make better-informed decisions while reducing unnecessary food waste. Shoppers, however, are likely to continue seeing older labels on store shelves for several months as retailers sell through existing inventory packaged before the new rules took effect.