The Date That Sends Good Food to the Trash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhvBJajvgMI

Alicia Raffanengo

Reporter, Life News Today

Your yogurt does not turn poisonous at midnight, and a box of cereal does not suddenly become dangerous because the calendar moved forward one day. Still, the date printed on a package often looks like an official government warning. Shoppers see “Sell By,” “Use By” or “Best if Used By” and assume the food has reached a scientifically determined deadline. For most foods sold in the United States, that assumption is wrong. The date usually tells consumers something about expected quality, not the exact moment the food becomes unsafe.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act gives the federal government authority to regulate food that is adulterated, contaminated or deceptively labeled. It does not create a standardized expiration-date system for most packaged foods. Except for infant formula, federal law generally does not require manufacturers to place quality-based dates on food packages. Companies normally select the dates themselves based on estimates of how long a product will retain its preferred flavor, texture, color or freshness. The wording must not be false or misleading, but the government usually does not determine the date. Food date labels did not begin as public health warnings. Manufacturers and retailers used coded dates to track production, manage inventory and rotate products before they became stale. Those codes were designed for the businesses handling the food, not for shoppers trying to decide whether to buy it. As supermarkets grew and Americans purchased more packaged products, consumers wanted a readable way to judge the quality of the food. Visible calendar dates, once commonly called open dating, became increasingly common during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Consumers could not imagine the need for better information. A federal report published in 1974 said a U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that more than 20% of surveyed consumers reported buying stale or spoiled food. Consumer groups supported visible dates because shoppers could not otherwise determine the age of many perishable and semiperishable products. Retailers also benefited because readable dates made stock rotation easier. Supermarkets soon discovered another advantage, because a freshness label could reassure customers and help market one store’s products against another’s.

The labels produced confusion almost immediately. A 1971 USDA study of a Chicago grocery chain found that 63% of the 429 shoppers surveyed had used open dates at least once. Only 29% understood that the date represented the last day the product was supposed to be offered for sale. Many believed it showed when the food had been manufactured, packaged, delivered to the store or placed on the shelf. A 1969 Rutgers University study also warned that time alone did not determine freshness because temperature, handling and storage conditions could change how quickly food deteriorated.

More than half a century later, shoppers still face many of the same mixed messages. A “Sell By” date generally tells a retailer how long to display a product for inventory management. A “Best if Used By” date generally indicates when the manufacturer expects the food to have its best flavor or quality. A “Use By” date is commonly presented as the manufacturer’s recommendation for peak quality, although some companies use it as a safety message under a voluntary industry system. Because the federal government has not imposed one mandatory national meaning for every phrase, the same words may not carry precisely the same significance from one product to another.  The USDA recommended the phrase “Best if Used By” in 2016 because research showed that consumers understood it as a quality message. The Food and Drug Administration later supported the same voluntary wording. Federal agencies continue to allow manufacturers to use other phrases, including “Sell By” and “Use By,” when those statements are truthful and not misleading. State requirements add another layer of complexity. A 2025 national survey reported that 41 states regulate date labels on at least some foods, although many of those rules apply only to a particular product, such as eggs.

None of this means consumers should ignore food safety. A date cannot protect a carton of milk that sat in a hot car, and it cannot make improperly refrigerated meat safe to eat. Food can become dangerous before its printed date when it is contaminated, damaged or stored at the wrong temperature. Some refrigerated ready-to-eat foods, including deli meats and certain soft cheeses, require particular caution because harmful bacteria can grow without producing an obvious smell or change in appearance. Recalls, safe storage instructions and recommended refrigeration times matter more than a quality date printed on the package.

Powdered milk requires a careful distinction. Ordinary powdered milk is regulated as food, and federal standards define products such as nonfat dry milk and establish requirements for their composition. That regulation does not mean every “Best By” date on ordinary powdered milk is a federally mandated expiration date. In most cases, the date still represents the manufacturer’s estimate of peak quality. The product’s safety also depends on sealed packaging, dry storage and protection from contamination.

Powdered infant formula is different. FDA regulations require every container of infant formula, including powdered formula, to carry a “Use By” date. The manufacturer must have testing or other evidence showing that the formula will contain at least the amount of each nutrient declared on the label and remain of acceptable quality through that date. The FDA advises parents and caregivers not to use infant formula after its “Use By” date. In this case, the printed date carries a specific federal requirement that does not apply to most ordinary foods.

Consumers often believe the rest of the grocery store works the same way. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and ReFED surveyed 2,069 U.S. adults through The Harris Poll in January 2025. The survey found that 43% always or usually discarded food when it was near or past the package date, while 88% did so at least occasionally. Although an average of 87% believed they understood eight different labels, only 53% correctly identified their meanings. Another 44% incorrectly believed the federal government regulates the phrases used on most food date labels.

The date deserves attention, but it is not always an order to throw the food away. It may be an inventory instruction for a store, a manufacturer’s estimate of peak quality or a legally significant requirement for a product such as infant formula. The label must be considered together with the type of food, how it was stored, whether the package was damaged and whether the product was recalled. Sometimes the date is important. Sometimes it only means the crackers may not be as crunchy as they were last week. ReFED estimates that confusion over dates such as “Sell By,” “Use By” and “Best if Used By” causes American households to discard approximately 3 billion pounds of food worth $7 billion every year. The FDA separately estimates that date-label confusion accounts for about 20% of consumer food waste. Those losses occur while families are paying for groceries, communities are managing landfill waste and food assistance organizations are trying to meet growing demand.