The goal is for all consumer packaged goods to have these labels by January 2020. The Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marketing Institute have been working with 25 manufacturers and retailers to standardize the use of only two terms: 'best if used by' to indicate best quality/taste dates, and for perishable foods, 'use by' to give the date after which the food should be discarded. Earlier this year the Food and Drug Administration said it supported a food industry movement to regularize the labels and make them easier for consumers to understand. But the bill is still in committee in both houses.Įven without federal regulation, some standardization of these terms may be coming. In an attempt to standardize labeling and make it clearer, the Food Date Labeling Act was introduced in both houses of Congress in May 2016. In many cases, dates are conservative, so if you eat food past that date, you may not notice any difference in quality, especially if the date has recently passed. But consumers have no way of knowing the background. This is also not a safety date except when used on infant formula.Īccording to a report from the NRDC and Harvard University, manufacturers typically use methods such as lab tests and taste-testing to set these label dates. Use By: This is the last date that guarantees the best quality of a product.For instance, milk, assuming proper refrigeration, should last five to seven days past its sell-by date before turning sour. The goal is to ensure that consumers have products at their best quality, which can be several days to several weeks, depending on the item.

Sell By: This is the date set by manufacturers to tell retailers when to remove a product from shelves.For instance, a jar of salsa may not taste as fresh or crackers may be soft instead of crisp after this date. Best If Used By/Before: This guarantees when a product is of the best quality or flavor.But the dates have little to do with how safe the food is. Supermarkets may also use the dates as a guide when stocking shelves. Often the “best if used by,” “sell by,” and “use by” designations are just a manufacturer's best guess about how long their food will taste its freshest. With the exception of baby formula, there are no federal regulations on date labeling. If expiration dates aren’t a reliable gauge of food spoilage, how do you know what to keep and what to toss? Ninety percent of Americans misinterpret the dates on labels, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and they throw out food that could still be consumed or frozen for later use. discard/compost if the item poses safety risks) based upon a single small phrase.' 'Nonetheless,' he adds, 'the consumer education challenge remains large because you are requiring consumers to undertake radically different responses (assess whether the quality is suitable vs. There are plenty of reasons why good, usable food is tossed: picky kids, overstocked pantries, or even leftovers that sit in refrigerators too long.īut according to the authors of a new study looking at household food waste, ' ’best by,’ ’use by,’ and ambiguous date labeling significantly decrease the odds that food items are fully utilized.' Senior author of the study, Brian Roe, Ph.D., a professor of agricultural, environmental, and development economics at Ohio State University, says that to decrease food waste while maintaining safety, developing a uniform system of labeling is critical. Every day the average American throws out nearly a pound of food, according to a study from the Department of Agriculture.

What does use by mean on food