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California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the nation’s first mandatory food date labeling reform bill at the end of September. Assembly Bill (AB) 660 standardizes confusing date labels that can lead to unnecessary wasted food. The new law requires manufacturers to use the same phrase for date labels across their products, explains an NRDC press release. Starting July 1, 2026, “BEST if Used By” will be used to communicate peak quality, and “Use By” will be used to communicate product safety. To further reduce confusion on food date labeling, AB 660 prohibits the use of consumer facing “sell by” dates, reducing the likelihood of confusing “sell by” dates with quality and/or safety dates, notes NRDC. “This small change will accelerate California’s progress towards achieving a more efficient and secure food system.”
Adds Dana Gunders, president of ReFED: “AB 660 is game changing, not just for California, but for the country. It will be the first law of its kind to end the ridiculous confusion that causes consumers to throw out almost $15 billion of perfectly good food nationwide. It will also help reduce the significant toll that wasting food has on our planet.”
At the federal level, companion bills were introduced in the House and Senate in May 2023 (H.R. 3159 and S. 1484) to standardize food date labels across the U.S. With the exception of infant formula, there are no uniform federal standards for date labels. The legislation would establish a dual label system reducing the available labeling language to two phrases: one quality date indicator and one discard date indicator. If a manufacturer chooses to use a date to indicate when a food should be discarded for safety reasons, it must use the standard language “USE By” or “UB” if the package has limited space. A manufacturer may choose to add ‘‘or Freeze By’’ following a quality date or discard date uniform phrase.
The bills also propose eliminating state laws that bar the sale or donation of food past the quality date. However, states would still be allowed to prohibit the past-date sale or donation of foods bearing the “Use by” discard date.
