California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill to standardize food date labels and ban the use of “sell by” dates. California is the first state in the nation to require clear standards to cut food waste.
California’s Assembly Bill 660 helps consumers better understand the shelf-life of their food by allowing just two categories. “Best if used (or frozen) by” will indicate peak food quality, and “use (or freeze) by” will indicate food safety. For smaller products where space is a concern, labels can read “BB” or “UB.” Manufacturers and grocery stores can still use coded “sell by” dates to ensure product rotation on the shelves, but the words “sell by” cannot appear on the label. Additionally, “packed on” dates are allowed if they are accompanied by either a “best if used by” or “use by” date.
Confusion over date labels accounts for around 7 percent of consumer food waste in the United States, according to ReFED. And a study published in Waste Management finds that 84 percent of respondents throw out food that is near its labeled date “at least occasionally”.
“The passage of California’s food date labeling law, which was co-sponsored by NRDC, is an important step toward reducing food waste by promoting simpler and easily recognizable food date labels to help consumers, retailers, and manufacturers safely maximize the lifecycle of their food,” Madeline Keating, Senior Advocate for Food Waste at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tells Food Tank.
The law, which takes effect on July 1, 2026, consolidates over 50 different terminologies that packaged foods display.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends the use of the “best if used by” and “use by” wording, and California has encouraged the voluntary adoption of these terms since AB 954 passed in 2017. AB 660 changes the suggestion to a mandatory requirement.
While California leads the nation with this policy, it is not a new idea. A 2013 report from the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and NRDC advocates for the elimination of consumer facing “sell by” dates, and for clear, standardized labeling. The federal government is considering bills on date standards for food, but the U.S. remains without federal guidelines.
A number of organizations, including NRDC and the Zero Food Waste Coalition, are calling on Congress to establish national standards by passing the Food Date Labeling Act, but it has not moved forward. “In the House of Representatives there are 41 co-sponsors on a bill to standardize date labels…I think it takes a while on these bigger issues, especially if you’re trying to go through Congress, because there’s a lot of other pressing things they can’t get done,” says Emily Broad Leib, Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic.
Food waste experts believe that California’s action could provide the momentum the federal government needs. “By being the first in the nation to pass this kind of legislation, California sets a clear precedent for similar legislation at the federal level,” says Keating.
Many countries already employ the simple labeling system that California is implementing. And according to Broad Leib, there is hope for national change. “We’re really an outlier in not taking action on this, but with California right now setting the stage—and they separately passed a resolution calling on Congress to do this too—I feel optimistic.”
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Photo courtesy of Shannon VanDenHeuvel, Unsplash
