Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Our Blog on February 6, 2025
Sell By Dates may be disappearing from your food packages soon.
Here’s why!
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as part of the “National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics,” referred to as “the National Strategy,” was presented by the Biden-Harris Administration. The aim of the National Strategy is to reduce food loss and waste by 50% by 2030.
One step in that direction is to change the way food is dated.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2019 alone there was about 66 million tons of wasted food in the country. About 60 percent of that wasted food was sent to landfills.
And this just accounts for food retail and service along with residential sectors.
When you add the additional 40 million tons of wasted food generated in food and beverage manufacturing and processing sectors, we are wasting over a billion tons of food each year.
Yes!
Billion!
Each Year Over 1 Billion Tons of Food is Wasted, Most Sent to Landfills!
Filling up landfills is not the only problem wasted food causes.
In addition to filling up landfills, wasted food that is still safe to consume has far reaching effects.
A family in need could have been fed. The water, energy, and labor used to produce that food could have been used for other more effective activities.
So much is wasted.
Currently, food waste is being reduced by cooperation of the government (federal, state, and local) with food manufacturers, producers, certain organizations and communities, to get wholesome food that would have otherwise gone to waste into the hands and bellies of those who could benefit from them.
These efforts can and should continue.
But the problem is larger than donation labor can handle.
It comes down to really understanding whether a food item is truly bad or not.
Most people see a date on a package and assume it is unsafe to eat after that date. In most cases, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Package dates can be confusing. What exactly do the prefixes mean?
According the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with the exception of infant formula, product dating is not even a Federal requirement.
It is entirely voluntary.
If a date is applied, however, it is required to be truthful and in compliance with Federal regulations. For example, perishable foods must include a month and day of month if a date is placed on the package. For shelf-stable or frozen foods, the year must also be displayed. A “prefix” must also be included. Best if Used By or something similar.
Contrary to public perception, these dates generally describe the product safety. Instead, it is the date in which the manufacturers use to help retailers and consumers decide when food is of “best quality.”
In fact, in a request for comment on the proposal to remove sell by dates from food products, this was one of the major causes for consumer confusion.
The USDA explains that there are four common prefixes used in food product dating. Best if Used By/Before, Sell By, Use By, and Freeze By.
Here’s what they mean.
A Best if Used By or Best if Used Before date is not a purchase or safety date. This date indicates when a product will be at peak flavor or quality. After this date, quality may decline.
The Sell By date is also not a safety date. This is a date intended for retail inventory management. It tells the store how long to display the product for sale.
A Use By date, again, is not a safety date, except when applied to infant formula. The Use By date is the last recommended date for peak quality.
If a Freeze By date is indicated on a product, it explains the date the product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It too is not a purchase or safety date.
Many perishable products do not have a date on them. Have you ever seen a date on an apple or an orange. What about a banana?
Some perishable products like bread or prepared foods on the other hand, probably do have dates. According to the USDA, “the quality of perishable products may deteriorate after the date passes; however, such products should still be safe if handled properly.”
Look for signs of spoilage. Off colors or smells that may indicate the food may not be palatable.
As noted above, a Sell By date tells retailers when to take a food product out of inventory. This could mean that the product gets donated. But most of it ends up in landfills.
The FDA’s National Strategy approach, if put in place, will include a recommendation to remove Sell By dates from packaging to avoid this waste. Because with this date, retailers are obligated to do something with the product beyond that date.
Instead of a Sell By date, the FDA recommends a Best If Used By date instead.
“The ‘Best If Used By’ label aims to lessen consumer confusion and reduce wasted food. In addition, the ‘Best If Used By’ label was the most frequently perceived by consumers as communicating quality, among the food date labels assessed by researchers.”
This National Strategy plan is not yet finalized. The authors of the initiative are still requesting public comment to help shape the final rule. You can do so here if you’d like to participate.
Once a final rule is made, it will be published for public and industry view.
As a consumer, how do you feel about the proposed recommendation? Would changes in food package dates impact your perception of food safety or quality?
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “The FDA Wants to End Sell By Dates on Food. Here’s Why!,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)