California Redefines Grocery Labeling to Curb Food Waste
California is implementing significant changes to grocery labeling as part of a new consumer protection law aimed at reducing food waste and minimizing confusion for shoppers.
The recently passed California Assembly Bill 660 bans misleading “sold out” labels. The intent is to prevent billions of pounds of non-perishable food from being thrown away unnecessarily. This new legislation replaces confusing language on food packages with simple, consumer-friendly labels.
Under this law, manufacturers are now required to adopt standardized labels: “Best if Used By” indicates when a product is at its best quality, while “Use By” highlights when a product is no longer safe to consume.
Officials point out that many labels seen on food packaging are designed for retail inventory tracking, yet they are often interpreted by consumers as indicators of food safety.
The new law aims to clarify terms to better differentiate between food freshness and health hazards, addressing a significant cause of food waste. In California, many consumers confuse “best by” dates with safety warnings. This measure stresses that even if a product exceeds its “best by” date, it can still be safely consumed and shouldn’t be discarded.
Nick Lapis, advocacy director for Californians Against Waste and a co-sponsor of the bill, remarked that food labels are the leading cause of household food waste. He also mentioned that “sell by” dates create confusion at food banks, leading people to believe that food has expired.
“You don’t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure or invest a lot of money to solve this problem. All you need is for companies to use the same language across brands,” he emphasized.
A 2022 report from the University of Maryland noted there are over 50 different date labels on packaged foods in stores. The information presented on these labels is largely unchecked and often bears no relation to food safety.
“Consumers get confused and think that the date on the package means ‘don’t eat it, throw it away,'” said Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED, an organization focused on reducing food waste.
Lack of federal regulations on labeling contributes to consumer confusion, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims is responsible for nearly 20 percent of food waste in the U.S. In California, about 6 million tons of expired food are discarded each year.
