(HealthDay News) \u2014 Shoppers in California will no longer see \u201csell by\u201d dates on their groceries.<\/p>\n
A first-in-the-nation law<\/a> that took effect July 1 bans the \u201csell by\u201d labels, which lawmakers say tell retailers how long to display products but say nothing about whether food is safe to eat, reports the Associated Press.<\/p>\n Manufacturers selling food in California must now use standardized phrases instead: \u201cBest if Used By\u201d or \u201cBest if Used or Frozen By\u201d to signal peak quality and \u201cUse By\u201d or \u201cUse or Freeze By\u201d to flag safety. Companies can use either label or both, state Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin<\/a>, a Democrat who wrote the bill, told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n The goal is to clear up the confusion created by dozens of competing date stamps.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 50 different date labels appear on packaged foods sold in stores, and the information is largely unregulated and often unrelated to safety, according to a 2022 University of Maryland report on food waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cConsumers get confused and they just default to assuming that whatever date is on the package means \u2018don\u2019t eat it and throw it away,\u2019 \u201d Kumar Chandran<\/a>, policy director at ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste, told AP News.<\/p>\n That confusion is costly. Date labels drive nearly 20%<\/a> of the nation\u2019s food waste, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In California alone, about 6 million tons of unexpired food are tossed in the trash each year, according to AP News.<\/p>\n Nick Lapis<\/a>, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the bill, called date labels the leading cause of household food waste. \u201cSell by\u201d dates have also hurt food banks, because people assume the food has expired, he told AP News.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons of money to solve this,\u201d Lapis said. \u201cWe just need companies to use the same words across brands.\u201d<\/p>\n Grocers largely support the change, even though some stores had to overhaul their labeling systems, said Nate Rose<\/a>, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association.<\/p>\n The switch will be \u201ca win-win where we can reduce food waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler,\u201d Rose told AP News, though he noted shoppers will still see old labels for months as stores sell through existing stock.<\/p>\n California approved the new law in 2024, and momentum is building elsewhere. New York lawmakers recently passed a similar measure that awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a>\u2018s signature. Bills have also been introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina, according to AP News.<\/p>\n A bipartisan bill to set uniform national labels is also pending in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended a decade ago that food sellers switch to \u201cBest if Used By\u201d wording. For now, infant formula is the only product with federally regulated date labels.<\/p>\n More information<\/p>\n