The FDA Might Ban ‘Sell By’ Dates on Food Labels

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Weedygarden

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I seriously doubt that this will happen, but see the comment below that says we can submit comments.

"Comments can be submitted to the FSIS and the FDA at this portal from now until February 3, 2025." https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2024-Z-0025-0002

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article...utm_campaign=news,trends,author: marnie shure

Given that it’s the most populous state in the U.S., California has a lot of influence in politics, culture and innovation—right down to the food we eat. When the Golden State enacts some sort of regulation on the food industry, it’s often easier for manufacturers to simply roll out the changes nationwide to comply with the country’s largest market.

The state of California recently passed a bill, scheduled to take effect in 2026, that bans ambiguous expiration labels on food packaging. From then on, “sell by” and “best before” will not be allowed to appear on the label.

We now see that happening at the federal level, as the FDA and USDA mull a change to expiration dates on food packaging.

Why are expiration dates so confusing?
There are many phrasings that get stamped on various food packages: “best by,” “best if used by,” “best before,” “sell by,” “use by” and so on. None of these mean the exact same thing—and none of them are regulated at the federal level. This understandably leads to confusion among consumers, who throw out food that’s still safe to eat past its sell-by date. Food waste has increasingly become an issue, not to mention all the money wasted on food that goes uneaten.

In California, the label “Best if Used By” will be required to indicate that the product will lose peak quality after the given date (but will likely still be safe/good to eat), and “Use By” will be the only label related to product safety after the given date. The term “Use By” will be the only label that amounts to an “expiration date” in the strictest sense.

California state representative Jacqui Irwin stated that this bill will be “a monumental step to keep money in the pockets of consumers while helping the environment and the planet.” Now, the federal government is on board, too.

Food Business News reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued a joint request for public feedback regarding food labeling. These agencies know that the current, relatively unregulated labeling system is confusing, but in order to potentially improve the situation, they have to know what’s tripping us up the most.

Right now, the recommendation from both FSIS and the FDA is for food manufacturers to voluntarily apply the “Best if Used By” label, “which notes the date after which quality may decline but the product may still be consumed.”

A 2019 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that “Best if Used By” is understood by most consumers to convey the quality of an item, and “Use By” is understood by a good proportion of consumers to convey the safety of an item. However, “many had different interpretations.” Whatever regulations are adopted, the public would need to be educated on the meaning of each label.

Comments can be submitted to the FSIS and the FDA at this portal from now until February 3, 2025.

How this change to food labels could help us
In June, the Biden-Harris administration released the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, aiming for a 50% reduction in food waste and food loss by 2030. Clarifying our food labels won’t get us all the way to that goal, but it would have a significant impact. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the retail, food service and residential sectors wasted 66 million tons of food in 2019, with an additional 40 million tons of waste generated at the manufacturing level. Squeezing even a few extra days out of our grocery haul could keep food out of landfills—and keep us from wasting a chunk of our personal budgets.
 
I do know people who won't eat food that is past the "Best by" date.
That is their right. They can always drop it off at a food-bank.
We are not a poor country. We can toss anything we own.
 
All I want to know is when I need to toss it in the garbage.
Open the can or box. Look at it. Smell it. Does it smell okay? Does it look okay? How hungry are you? Can you stomach what you see or taste?

There are some things that I can eat well after the best by date, but some things are not okay, such as milk, other liquid dairy and maybe others.
 
All I want to know is when I need to toss it in the garbage.
I suppose that a person can do like we do and put a date on the can when they buy it. The next best thing is to look, smell and taste the food. For myself, if it doesn't have anything growing on it, and it doesn't scare the dog away, I'll eat it.
 
I have to side with the FDA.
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The main purpose for the silly dates has always been so manufacturers can con people into pitching perfectly good stuff, and buying more. :mad:
 
I have heard that most canned food expiration dates are actually almost double for Canadian and American foods. many get Gamma blasted these days.
 
I'm sure I've posted this before, but I knew a gal who worked for a drug repackaging plant near Dallas. Prescription and OTC medicine came in and was repackaged with new dates. Example, Tylenol bottles got a new label with a new date. Some meds could get new dates up to three times!
 
All I want to know is when I need to toss it in the garbage.

🤔 ...When it Bites you back? ;)

Ehh, for the most part, the FDA can Kiss My Grits.. ;) Nonetheless, 'streamlining' / homogenizing the terms might not be a terrible idea (certainly Isn't Zommiefornias "Worst ever" - remember the 'ban on plastic bags'? But, of course, if you Pay Extra for them, then they Magically become 'OK'.. 🤬 etc)

Will be interesting to see what 'DOGE' has to say about this.. 😈 Guess we shall see..

jd
 
That is their right. They can always drop it off at a food-bank.
We are not a poor country. We can toss anything we own.
I was told the local food bank pitches food past the best by date. My wife won't let me donate any outdated food.

The poor of the United States have it pretty good, I guess. When we made sandwiches for a local homeless charity, we were told to throw away the heels of the loaf of bread. I was dumbfounded. I ate the heel slices on sandwiches or as toast all the time, but our local homeless were too good to eat them??? I have to admit that it kind of soured me on helping the homeless when I found out the homeless had higher food standards than I had for myself. I got over it, but it does make you think about how good the homeless have it in our country, compared to people in the Third World. We wouldn't want them to suffer the indignity of having too much crust on their bread. :rolleyes:
 
I look at the dates labeled on things, shrug my shoulders, then eat it for the most part. The only date that I really pay much attention to is the date that I personally write down on the packaging when I first use it ... "Opened dd/mm/yyyy".

I write dates on everything. Leftovers for sure. Even though I'll eat leftovers long after many would have thrown them out. I always refrigerate all leftovers. Look, smell, feel and taste - if if passes all those tests I'll generally eat it (there are a few exceptions of course). Also bottled water deliveries. In that case, I write down the delivered date so we can use them in delivery order, since we usually have ten or so of those 5 gallon bottles resident.
 
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