California bans 'sell by' food labels to cut food waste and confusion
[July 01, 2026] By
OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In Kimberley Kausen’s home, a passed “sell by” date
on a jug of milk means different things to different family members. For
her daughter, it means the jug belongs in the trash. For her husband, it
means the milk is still good for a few more days.
Kausen, a chef and cooking teacher in Irvine, California, is more
discerning and often uses her sense of smell before deciding what to do
with the milk.
“I’ll put some thought into it, and if we’re talking about meat and
poultry, I’m very cautious about that and for sure will do the smell
test and the touch test,” she said.
The debate playing out in Kausen’s kitchen is repeated in homes across
California and the country, where varying phrases on food packaging have
long left shoppers unsure whether food is simply past its peak quality
or unsafe to eat. The state is aiming to cut down on confusion — and the
food waste it creates when people throw away food early — with a new
food labeling law starting Wednesday.
It bans the use of “sell by” labels on food packaging, which experts say
act as a guide for retailers on how long to display products on the
shelves but are not an indicator of whether they are still safe to
consume. Now, manufacturers selling food in California must use two
standardized labels — a “Best if Used By” label for peak quality and
“Use By” label for product safety.
Food manufacturers can choose to use either label or both, said
Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the author of the bill.
California became the first state in the U.S. to standardize food labels
when it approved the law in 2024 that seeks to reduce food waste and the
state’s climate-warming emissions. New York state lawmakers recently
approved a similar law that's awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature.
Legislation addressing food labeling also has been proposed in Illinois,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina, though it has
not passed in those states.
Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which
co-sponsored the bill, said food labels are the leading cause of
household food waste. The “sell by” date labels have also been a problem
for food banks in California because people consider those dates as
meaning the food has expired, he said.
“We don’t need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons
of money to solve this. We just need companies to use the same words
across brands,” he said.
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A Best If Used By date is stamped above a Sell By label on a milk
carton, Tuesday, June 30, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff
Chiu)
 There are more than 50 different
date labels on packaged food sold in stores, according to a 2022
report on food waste published by the University of Maryland. The
information in the labels is largely unregulated and often does not
relate to food safety.
“Consumers get confused and they just default to
assuming that whatever date is on the package means ‘don’t eat it
and throw it away’,” said Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED,
a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste.
Chandran said California and New York’s approval of food-labeling
laws has added momentum to the push for a national standard. A
bipartisan bill that would establish uniform food labels is pending
in Congress. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended a decade
ago that food sellers should switch to “Best if Used By” labeling.
Currently, the only product that is regulated federally with date
labels is infant formula.
With no federal regulations dictating what information labels should
include, the stamps have led to consumer confusion — and nearly 20%
of the nation’s food waste, according to the Food and Drug
Administration. In California, that’s about 6 million tons of
unexpired food that’s tossed in the trash each year.
Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association,
said some grocers have had to overhaul their labeling systems, but
as a whole, the association has been supportive of the change.
The new labels will result in “a win-win where we can reduce food
waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler,”
he said, adding that shoppers will still find old labels in stores
for months to come as grocers sell through the products that already
have them.
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