California’s New Law Regarding Food Expiration Labels

Sometimes knowing if your food is still good is a guessing game. Maybe you’ve rooted around in the fridge and found a bag of recently expired cheese or a pack of chicken with a smeared expiration date. And when those dates don’t quite help you determine if something has gone bad—or if you’re just too hopeful to believe them—you may have to turn to the quick mold check and sniff test method.

Then there’s trying to decipher labels on food with dates—like the “sell by” and “best before” labels. It turns out that there is no universally accepted definition of these terms, so it’s anyone’s guess what exactly they mean. And these labels have contributed to tons of food waste—literally. 

According to a 2021 United Nations report, about 17% of the food produced globally each year gets tossed. That’s about 1.03 billion tons of food each year!

And the U.S. Food & Drug Administration reports that 30% to 40% of the food in the United States goes uneaten—as much as 20 pounds of food per person per month—and confusion over food labeling accounts for 20% of that food waste. 

Apparently, the state legislature of California has grown tired of the guessing game—and the estimated 6 million tons of unexpired food that gets wasted in the state each year. The state senate and assembly recently passed a law that will make expiration dates clearer for products sold in California.

California’s new law is set to take effect in July 2026. It will require a “Best if Used By” label, signaling the product’s peak quality, and “Use By” label for product safety. Exempt from the law are eggs, beer and other malt beverages. 

What About the Rest of Us?

If you don’t live in California, you’ll most likely still have to deal with the old labels, though some California legislators are hoping their new law will encourage other states or the federal government to follow suit. In the meantime, here are a few tips to help clear up some of the confusion.

First, it’s important to know that “sell by” dates on packages have nothing to do with us, as consumers. They’re really for stores, acting as a guide to alert them when to pull the items off their shelves, and they don’t mean the food is unsafe to consume.

And the “use by” date? That refers to quality, not safety, even though the USDA recommends using products by the “use by” date. 

If the food has a “sell by” date, as many meats do, it can probably be safely used for a short time past that date. For example, ground meat and poultry are probably still okay to eat 1 to 2 days past the “sell by” date, and cuts of beef (not ground) might still be good up to 5 days past the date. Eggs have a longer life and might be able to go as long as 5 weeks past the “sell by” date.

Certain shelf-stable foods, though, like canned beans and packages of oats, may be able to go well past the “use by” date, especially if they’ve been properly stored in a cool, dry place. 

The Bottom Line

California recently passed a law, going into effect in July 2026, to clear up the confusion regarding dates on food packages and ultimately reduce food waste. Hopefully, this will encourage other states to follow suit. But in the meantime, understand that the “sell by” date is primarily for the stores. And the “use by” date isn’t necessarily a hard and fast rule, since it has more to do with quality than safety, and there may be some wiggle room regarding when a product is still safe to consume. When “use by” and “sell by” dates leave things unclear, a visual inspection and sniff test can come in handy. If it smells rank or rancid or just looks off, don’t take your chances. Toss it.