{"id":13966,"date":"2026-07-08T09:27:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13966"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:27:37","slug":"new-california-labeling-law-aims-to-reduce-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=13966","title":{"rendered":"New California Labeling Law Aims To Reduce Food Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul style=\"border-color:#000000;border-width:3px;border-top-left-radius:30px;border-top-right-radius:30px;border-bottom-left-radius:30px;border-bottom-right-radius:30px\" class=\"wp-block-list is-style-default has-border-color has-bg-shade-background-color has-background has-small-font-size\">\n<li>Consumers are often confused by \u201cbest by,\u201d \u201cuse by,\u201d and \u201csell by\u201d labels and throw away unspoiled food because of the dates on packaging.<\/li>\n<li>A new California law restricts the kinds of phrases used on food packaging to reduce food waste in the state.<\/li>\n<li>There is no national standard on the use of \u201cbest by\u201d or \u201cuse by,\u201d despite several attempts in Congress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019ve thrown out food because it\u2019s older than the \u201cBest by\u201d or \u201cSell by\u201d date printed on the packaging, you\u2019re not alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/calrecycle.ca.gov\/organics\/\">According<\/a>\u00a0to California\u2019s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), 2.5 billion meals\u2019 worth of unspoiled food is thrown away annually in the state. Part of the reason why is the number of different phrases used on packaging, including \u201csell by,\u201d \u201cuse by,\u201d \u201cbest before,\u201d and \u201cexpires.\u201d According to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/refed.org\/uploads\/consumer-perceptions-of-food-date-labels-2025-national-survey-policy-brief.pdf\">study<\/a>\u00a0by Harvard, John Hopkins, and food waste non-profit reFed, 43% of Americans toss food near or at the date on the label, even if it\u2019s still fit to eat. Except for infant formula, there is no federal-level regulation of these labels, leaving manufacturers and retailers to use dates as they fit, adding confusion that leads to food waste.<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"expand-paywall-button\" class=\"expand-paywall-button\">Subscribe to Read More<\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thedieline.com\/new-california-labeling-law-aims-to-reduce-food-waste\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumers are often confused by \u201cbest by,\u201d \u201cuse by,\u201d and \u201csell by\u201d labels and throw away unspoiled food because of the dates on packaging. A new California law restricts the kinds of phrases used on food packaging to reduce food waste in the state. There is no national standard on the use of \u201cbest by\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packaging-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}