California became the first state in the nation to outlaw "sell by" dates on food packaging on July 1, replacing a patchwork of confusing labels with just two standardized phrases — a change advocates say could prevent millions of tons of food from being needlessly thrown away.

The new law, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin and co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste, requires food manufacturers selling products in California to use only "Best if Used By" — indicating peak quality — or "Use By," which signals a genuine safety threshold. The legislation targets a real and measurable problem: according to the FDA, date-label confusion drives nearly 20% of the nation's food waste, which in California alone amounts to roughly 6 million tons of still-edible food discarded every year.

In Kimberley Kausen's Irvine home, a passed "sell by" date on a jug of milk has always meant something different to each family member. Her daughter tosses it. Her husband gives it a few more days. Kausen, a chef and cooking teacher, reaches for a sniff test.

"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 told the Associated Press.

That household disagreement — repeated in kitchens across the state — is precisely what California's new food labeling law aims to resolve. The measure, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin and co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste, took effect July 1. It bans "sell by" labels, which experts say are a retail inventory tool with no bearing on food safety, and mandates that manufacturers choose between just two phrases: "Best if Used By" for peak quality, and "Use By" for safety. Manufacturers may use either label or both, Irwin said.

The stakes are substantial. There are currently more than 50 different date-label phrases on packaged food sold in U.S. stores, according to a 2022 University of Maryland report on food waste. With no federal standard governing what those stamps mean, the result is systematic confusion.

"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. The FDA estimates that date-label confusion accounts for nearly 20% of the nation's total food waste — roughly 6 million tons of unexpired food discarded annually in California alone.

Nick Lapis, director of advocacy at Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the legislation, said the fix doesn't require a massive overhaul. "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. Lapis also noted that ambiguous "sell by" dates have caused problems for food banks, with donors and recipients alike treating them as expiration notices.

The food industry has largely fallen in line. Nate Rose, a spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, called the new labels "a win-win where we can reduce food waste and consumers will find these decisions a little bit simpler." He cautioned that shoppers will still encounter old-style labels in stores for months as retailers sell through existing inventory.

California is not alone for long. New York lawmakers have approved a similar standardization measure, currently awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature. Legislation has also been introduced in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and South Carolina, though none has passed yet. A bipartisan federal bill establishing a national uniform standard is also pending in Congress — a step the U.S. Department of Agriculture first recommended a decade ago.

The only food product currently subject to federal date-label regulation is infant formula. Everything else has been governed by a patchwork of industry custom and state rules — a gap California has now moved to close, with others watching closely to see whether the change sticks.