Jul 3, 2026
There’s “sell by,” “best before” and “expires” — confused yet? You’re not alone.
Most shoppers don’t give food date labels much thought until they’re standing in the kitchen, tossing something that might have been perfectly fine, or second-guessing whether a carton of milk is still safe. California is now betting that a simpler system could take some of that guesswork out of everyday grocery decisions — and maybe even cut down on a surprising source of food waste.
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As of July 1, the state is rolling out standardized food date labels aimed at reducing confusion for shoppers. It’s part of a broader effort to make sense of a system that, for decades, has been anything but consistent.
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California’s new approach to food date labels
Under the new law, California is scrapping “sell by” dates on food packaging. It’s a phrase that sounds important — almost official enough to be a warning — but it was never actually meant for shoppers in the first place. It’s mainly used by retailers to manage inventory and decide how long products should stay on shelves.
The issue is that most people don’t see it that way. “Sell by” has a way of sounding like a deadline for safety, even though it isn’t. And that misunderstanding has been shaping what gets eaten and what gets tossed in American homes for years.
In its place, California is pushing manufacturers toward just two standardized labels:
- “Best if Used By” for peak quality
- “Use By” for products where safety is more of a concern
Manufacturers won’t be forced into a single format in every case. They can still choose which label makes the most sense for a product — and in some cases, use both — Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who authored the bill, told NBC Bay Area.
The idea isn’t to change anything about how food actually behaves once it’s on your counter or in your fridge. It’s to clean up the language around it. Instead of dozens of slightly different phrases that all sound like instructions, the goal is to narrow things down to a shared standard that looks and feels more consistent from brand to brand.
California is the first state to formally put that approach into law under a 2024 measure aimed at cutting food waste and reducing the emissions tied to it. Food that’s thrown out doesn’t just disappear — it often ends up in landfills, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
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And while California is out in front, it’s not alone for long. New York lawmakers have already passed a similar bill that now sits on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk. Other states — including Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina — have also floated similar proposals, though none have made it into law yet.
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Why confusing date labels drive food waste
Part of the problem is just how inconsistent food labeling has become.
A Cornell University analysis found that U.S. grocery stores use dozens of different date-label phrases on packaged foods, many of which aren’t federally regulated and often confuse shoppers. “Fresh until,” “sell by,” “enjoy by” — they can all appear on packaging, often with no consistent meaning behind them. Most aren’t federally regulated, and many have little to do with food safety. Which is where things start to break down.
On paper, the labels look precise. In reality, they’re anything but.
That confusion shows up in how much food gets thrown out. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that nearly 20% of food waste in the country is linked to misunderstandings over date labels. That means a meaningful share of what ends up in the garbage could still be fine to eat.
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Food banks see the same issue from a different angle. Donations sometimes get rejected or discarded because “sell by” is treated like an expiration date, even though it’s really just a retailer’s inventory guide.
Nick Lapis of Californians Against Waste, a co-sponsor of the California bill, said the fix doesn’t need to be complicated.
“We don’t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons of money to solve this,” he told NBC Bay Area. “We just need companies to use the same words across brands.”
The stakes go well beyond a few containers in the fridge. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has long estimated that 30% to 40% of the food supply is wasted. That adds up to billions of dollars a year, plus a climate cost that’s difficult to see but hard to ignore. When food ends up in landfills and breaks down, it doesn’t just disappear — it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that’s far more powerful than carbon dioxide in the short term.
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Still, labels aren’t the whole story. How people shop, what they buy, how they store it, and how much they cook all feed into the same outcome — which is food that never gets eaten.
So the question hanging over California’s new rules is whether changing a few words on packaging actually moves the needle — or whether it just fixes one small piece of a much bigger problem.
Supporters like the idea because, in theory, it’s one of the few food-waste fixes that doesn’t require much heavy lifting. No new systems, no big public spending — just getting everyone to use the same basic wording on packaging.
But that’s also where the limits show up. Outside California, date labels are still all over the place, and there’s no national standard in place yet. Congress has seen proposals to fix that, but nothing has made it into law. The USDA floated the idea of simpler, more consistent wording years ago, and it still hasn’t translated into federal rules.
So for now, California is nudging things in one direction. Whether it actually changes what people throw out at home is another question.
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Laura Grande is a freelance contributor with nearly 15 years of industry experience. Throughout her career she's written about and edited a range of topics, from personal finance and politics to health and pop culture.
