- Posted July 6, 2026
New California Law Replaces 'Sell By' Labels On Food Packaging
Shoppers in California will no longer see "sell by" dates on their groceries.
A first-in-the-nation law that took effect July 1 bans the "sell by" labels, which lawmakers say tell retailers how long to display products but say nothing about whether food is safe to eat, reports the Associated Press.
Manufacturers selling food in California must now use standardized phrases instead: "Best if Used By" or "Best if Used or Frozen By" to signal peak quality and "Use By" or "Use or Freeze By" to flag safety. Companies can use either label or both, state Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a Democrat who wrote the bill, told the Associated Press.
The goal is to clear up the confusion created by dozens of competing date stamps.
More than 50 different date labels appear on packaged foods sold in stores, and the information is largely unregulated and often unrelated to safety, according to a 2022 University of Maryland report on food waste.
"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,' " Kumar Chandran, policy director at ReFED, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste, told AP News.
That confusion is costly. Date labels drive nearly 20% of the nation's food waste, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In California alone, about 6 million tons of unexpired food are tossed in the trash each year, according to AP News.
Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the bill, called date labels the leading cause of household food waste. "Sell by" dates have also hurt food banks, because people assume the food has expired, he told AP News.
"We don't need to build some kind of huge infrastructure and invest tons of money to solve this," Lapis said. "We just need companies to use the same words across brands."
Grocers largely support the change, even though some stores had to overhaul their labeling systems, said Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association.
The switch will be "a win-win where we can reduce food waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler," Rose told AP News, though he noted shoppers will still see old labels for months as stores sell through existing stock.
California approved the new law in 2024, and momentum is building elsewhere. New York lawmakers recently passed a similar measure that awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature. Bills have also been introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina, according to AP News.
A bipartisan bill to set uniform national labels is also pending in Congress.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended a decade ago that food sellers switch to "Best if Used By" wording. For now, infant formula is the only product with federally regulated date labels.
More information
Visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture for more information about food loss and waste.
SOURCE: AP News, July 1, 2026
