A California bill that would remove “sell by” dates on food—to cut down on consumers needlessly throwing away otherwise still edible products—is working its way through the legislative process, having recently passed in two committees and is now waiting to be heard by a third, which reviews bills that have fiscal impacts.
Assembly Bill 660, authored by Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) would set new standards by requiring expiration labels to use the phrases “best if used by” and “use by” to communicate peak freshness and food safety, and completely ban the terminology of “sell by” dates, starting January of 2025.
Existing law requires food—such as eggs and produce—to be tagged with “sell by” stickers for distributors or retailers to know when to stock the items. However, according to Irwin, they are confusing and lead to unnecessary food waste.
“We have all opened our fridge or pantry and had to wonder whether our food is still good. AB 660 will eliminate confusion with food labeling and reduce food waste, saving consumers money and meaningfully impacting climate change,” Irwin said in a May 2 press release.
Irwin cited data from the Food and Drug Administration in the news release, that confusion caused by current date stickers causes around 20 percent of food waste.
She pointed to a study released in April by ReFED—a national nonprofit working to cut food waste—which found that changing the labeling system could save 265 billion gallons of water and stop 796,000 tons of food waste from entering landfills nationwide per year.
The goal in passing the bill, according to Irwin, is to fight climate change by lessening the amount of food that ultimately ends up in such landfills. Such decomposing food emits methane gas, which is over 80 times more powerful than greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
“About six million tons of food are wasted in California each year, much of which rots in landfills and creates harmful methane emissions,” Gracyna Mohabir, Policy Associate at Californians Against Waste—a nonprofit advocate for waste and recycling legislation and one of the bill’s sponsors—said in the press release.
Another sponsor for the bill is the Natural Resources Defense Council—an international nonprofit environmental organization.
“Addressing so-called ‘expiration date’ labels, a surprisingly substantial systemic cause of food waste, will help our environment, our health, and our economy,” Andrea Collins, Senior Sustainable Food Systems Specialist for the nonprofit, said in the same press release. “Despite past measures, confusion over the dates on food is still leading to an enormous amount of wasted food.”
The bill passed the Assembly’s Agriculture and Health committees with majority bipartisan support and few oppositions. It will now be considered by the body’s Appropriations Committee.
