California Bans 'Sell by' Labels, Hoping to Cut Food Waste

This is a pretty nothing law when you look into it.

All it does is standardize "sell by" labels to be more transparent. The extent of the ban is the explicit phrasing "Sell By" which is itself confusing since the manufacturer has some estimated consumption interval that is tacked onto their actual expiration date. Sell By gives the customer has no idea how much padding they are adding to their estimate and when the thing actually goes bad.

All this law really does is it standardizes the labels manufacturers can use to "BEST if Used by" for quality concerns or "USE by" for safety concerns. A lot of manufacturers already do this, so it is a pretty minimal law There are probably more pressing issues in Sacramento, but a small improvement is always welcome.

>With 395,608 regulatory restrictions, California is the most heavily regulated state in the nation, according to the report. On average, states have 135,000 regulatory restrictions in administrative rules, with California's regulations more than doubling the national average.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-11-03/...

I wonder how many they've added in 5 years. Do all these laws improve peoples lives?

I'm curious why food producers didn't do this on their own, since no one likes "sell by" anyway? Or was there an existing regulation that got changed?

In any case I think the new way is better.

> Experts say the term “sell by” is generally for retailers to know when to rotate inventory, compared with labels like “best if used by” and “use by,” which indicate quality.

...

> Under the state’s bill, “sell by” dates can still be included on products as long as they are “coded” — information that is aimed at retailers rather than consumers.

This is about obfuscating "sell by" dates so customers don't get confused. They might not necessarily add another date you can read easily. Then if the grocery store forgets to replace old stock, you will never know.

But maybe someone can write an app to read the codes?

In the end, standardization of this type of things can only be good even if the effect on waste is small. There is no need to create additional ways to confuse people.

can’t wait for a new Regulatory Liability fee to be added to checks here

It’s be pretty cool if they figured out their water problem instead of passing all these nebulous laws that don’t push the needle any.

We should ban the sale of band-aids, so that people stop injuring themselves.