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A California bill limits and defines consumer-facing labels on food to avoid unnecessary food waste.
A new California bill fights food waste, a pressing issue that contributes to the heating of our atmosphere and burns a hole in our wallets. The average four-person family loses $1,500 on wasted food; that food often ends up in landfills, where it eventually rots and emits methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent and more damaging than carbon dioxide. In California, approximately six million tons of food is wasted annually, contributing to decomposing food and organic waste in landfills that accounts for an astonishing 41% of the state’s point-source methane emissions. A leading cause? Confusing date labels on our food.
In the United States, there are more than 50 different phrases used on date labels for food, including “Sell by,” “Enjoy by,” “Freeze by,” and “Freshest before.” Each of these 50 phrases means something different, and some dates printed on packaged food have no contextualizing phrase at all. This lack of standardization is confusing for consumers and is reportedly responsible for 20% of all avoidable food waste.
To combat this, California has defined a standard for consumer-facing labels on food. Effective July 2026, food date labels will be limited to dates that indicate a timeline for quality and safety of food items. Quality dates, which indicate peak freshness of an item, will be written as “BEST if used by” or “BEST if used or frozen by.” Safety dates, which indicate when a food is no longer safe to consume, will be written as “USE by” or “USE or freeze by.” The bill also bans printing consumer-facing “SELL by” dates, which are used to communicate stock information for retailers, not quality or safety information.
This legislation will help prevent unnecessary food waste, a major contributor to climate change, and will demystify the lifecycle of our food.
