California Becomes the First State to Ban Sell-By Dates on Food Labels

On September 28, California became the first state to ban “sell-by” dates, as Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation aimed at combating food waste. The law prohibits the use of consumer-facing sell-by dates, and also requires standardized language for date labels.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is California’s new law?

The changes will take effect starting on July 1, 2026, and impact all manufacturers, processors, and retailers of food for human consumption. To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. By reducing food waste, the legislation (Assembly Bill No. 660) may ultimately save consumers money and combat climate change too.

How do sell-by dates cause food waste?

Surprisingly, there aren’t any federal requirements for the language on food date labels, outside of baby formula. This has produced a wide range of words and phrases that are employed, including options like “display until,” “freshest by,” or “best before.” Without consistent standards, customers are often confused by what these labels actually mean (so much so that we’ve even published a guide to interpreting them), and end up throwing out or not purchasing food that is perfectly fine to eat.

Sell-by dates are a slightly ironic, and unnecessary, cause of food waste, because they’re not intended to ever be used by consumers. Instead, these dates are meant to indicate to store employees when stock needs to be rotated, and are not accurate representations of freshness or consumability. 

Dr. Bradley Rickard, a professor of food and agricultural economics at Cornell University with published research on the relationship between date labels and food waste, elaborated on the impact this confusion can have, telling Food & Wine that “some people will see the sell-by date and will assume this means something about food safety, and will then throw the item out even though there [are] unlikely any food safety concerns for many foods for a reasonable amount of time after the sell-by date.”

Switching to language that either says “Best if Used By” or “Use By” will also help minimize ambiguity. The former will establish consistent wording for advising when an item is less fresh (but still okay to eat), while the latter designates food that should no longer be consumed due to safety concerns.

What is the impact of food waste?

These new standardizations might seem like a small shift, but they’re an important step in fighting the monumental problem of food waste. ReFED, a non-profit organization fighting food waste, estimates that about 78 million tons, or 33% of all food in the United States, goes to waste. In California specifically, ReFED calculates that almost 12 million tons of food were wasted in 2022.

The problem is much more than just edible food that isn’t being utilized. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculates that food waste makes up roughly 24% of the materials discarded in landfills — decaying food then produces methane as it breaks down, a greenhouse gas that is about 28 times more powerful than carbon monoxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. Because food waste also decomposes quickly, it’s difficult for landfills to trap methane before it’s released into the atmosphere. 

To put the scale of the problem into perspective, ReFED details that “In 2021, surplus food accounted for 380 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMT CO2e). This translates to 6% of total U.S. GHG emissions, according to the EPA’s Inventory — the annual equivalent of driving 84 million passenger vehicles or powering 73 million homes’ electricity.”

In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, the costs of food waste are passed on to everyone — both households and retailers. Dana Gunders, the President of ReFED, explained to Food & Wine that much of this can be attributed to unclear labeling, and “confusion over date labels accounts for $15 billion of food annually that people are throwing away.

“By requiring manufacturers to use the same phrases for date labels across products, ReFED estimates that in California alone, this law will annually save 70,000 tons of food from going to waste, saving consumers $300 million.”

The good news is that we can all take small steps to reduce food waste at home. Donate items that are still good to eat, but you know you won’t consume, and compost organic waste when possible (composting produces significantly less methane as the waste breaks down with the help of oxygen). Make sure you’re educated about what all the different date labels out there mean so you can avoid purchasing food that needs to be thrown out or you’re unsure about — if you live in California, that might be a little bit easier now.