SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California wants to help end the everyday household debate over whether the food in the fridge is still good to eat . Food labels that say “sell by” or “best before” are misleading because they have no universal meaning under current laws.
Now California wants to crack down on such practices, bidding to help consumers stop playing guessing games with produce and other items in their fridges. The state is the first to ban food labels such as “sell by” or “best before” under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The legislation signed by Newsom over the weekend aims at reducing both food waste and the state's climate-warming emissions. There are more than 50 different date labels on packaged food sold in stores, but the information is largely unregulated and does not relate to food safety. “Sell by” dates, for example, often act as a guide for stores to pull products from the shelf and not as an indicator of whether the product is still safe to consume.
With no federal regulations dictating what information these 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. “Having to wonder whether our food is still good is an issue that we all have struggled with," said Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, author of the bill.
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