Approximately 40% of all the food produced in the United States ends up in landfills. That is roughly 70 billion pounds, annually.
A significant driving factor behind this waste is food date labeling. They are often confusing, misleading, and inaccurate.
Currently, the only federally regulated food date label is on infant formula. Some states do regulate labeling of particular foods, but these regulations vary widely. In fact most labels are determined solely by manufacturers and do not reflect food safety, but instead food quality.
The lack of regulation and consistency surrounding food date labels leads to consumer confusion and food waste for fear of food safety. Furthermore, many stores cannot and will not sell food that has passed its date label, which also contributes to food waste.
California lawmakers are looking to reduce food waste caused by this consumer confusion by passing legislation that would regulate food date labels. This legislation would limit labeling to either "best if used by" or "expires on" and would be the first of its kind. Food quality would be specified by the "best if used by" label and food safety would be specified by "expires on" label. The "expires on" label would only be applied to food that could pose a serious health threat if eaten after it has gone bad. Foods given this label would be highly limited and include only a few items of particular concern. Regulating labels in this way would allow consumers to more accurately assess whether their food is still safe to eat and whether it needs to be thrown out.
It is estimated that federal regulation of food date labels could eliminate 398,000 tons of food waste, every year.
This new bill could serve as a valuable model to be used by other states to further help reduce food waste in America.
