California Bans ‘Sell By’ Labels, Hoping to Cut Food Waste

The law standardizes language around expiration dates, aiming to minimize confusion about when food is safe to eat. More than one-third of food sold nationwide is wasted, the U.S.D.A. says.

The “sell by” date labels have also been a problem for food banks in California because people consider those dates as meaning the food has expired, he said.

“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.