Starting July 1, 2026, food sold in California will no longer carry consumer-facing “sell by” dates. Instead, products manufactured on or after that date must display one of two standardized phrases: “BEST if Used by” for quality or “USE by” for safety. The shift targets a simple problem with outsized consequences. California wastes roughly 2.5 billion meals of unspoiled food each year, and organic waste accounts for 48 percent by weight of what the state sends to landfills, all while one in five Californians lack consistent access to food.
Why the ban on “sell by” labels matters right now
The confusion is not trivial. Federal agencies have long acknowledged that most date stamps on grocery products signal quality, not safety, yet consumers routinely treat any printed date as a hard expiration. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has stated that the federal government generally does not require date labels on food, and the FDA has endorsed the voluntary phrase “Best if Used By” specifically because consumer research showed it reduced unnecessary discards. California’s new statute, codified in Food and Agricultural Code Section 82001, goes further than federal guidance by making the standardized terms mandatory and banning “sell by” language from consumer-facing packaging.
The practical result is that shoppers will see only two date phrases on California shelves. “BEST if Used by” tells them when flavor or texture may begin to decline. “USE by” signals a safety boundary, typically applied to perishable items like deli meats or unpasteurized juices. Coded stock-rotation dates that help retailers manage inventory may still appear, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, but those markings are not intended for consumers.
The hypothesis that early-adopting retailers will show measurable drops in edible product discards within 18 months is plausible but untested. No published waste-audit data yet isolates how much household or store-level disposal in California stems directly from date-label confusion. CalRecycle tracks organic disposal volumes statewide, so a baseline exists. Whether individual retailers will share store-level waste logs to confirm or deny the link is an open question.
Federal alignment and CalRecycle’s six-year push
California did not arrive at this policy overnight. CalRecycle submitted a Preliminary Policy Recommendations Report on December 21, 2020, that recommended the same standardized “BEST if Used by” and “USE by” terms now written into law. The agency tied the recommendation to the state’s broader organic waste reduction goals, including cutting methane emissions from landfills and redirecting edible food to people who need it. CalRecycle’s own data shows that organic waste makes up 48 percent by weight of California’s landfill stream, and the agency has reported that one in five Californians lack enough food to eat.
