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California bans 'sell by' labels, hoping to cut food waste
https://archive.md/hh4j4 https://archive.md/hh4j4
- exabrial 4mo ago[flagged]
- garciansmith 4mo agoDid you read what they are replacing it with? I.e., "best if used by" (indicating the time the item is at its best quality), "best if frozen by", and "use by" (indicating when the food is and isn't safe to eat). Because those seem much more clear and useful to me than the useless "sell by" date.
- lokar 4mo agoThe subtitle: The law standardizes language around expiration dates, aiming to minimize confusion about when food is safe to eat. More than one-third of food sold nationwide is wasted, the U.S.D.A. says.
- cleaning 4mo ago"Sell by" is instead replaced with clearer, more standardized wording. Please at least read the (very short) article before posting.
- jrussino 4mo agoTo be fair, it's a bad title. We should be able to skim the headlines and get an accurate impression of the news items of the moment. This headline seems intentionally misleading. It should have been clear to the publisher that it would be interpreted this way. Intentionally inflammatory clickbait titles poison the information ecosystem. (That being said - yes, commenting on something you have not read does as well!)
- SilasX 4mo agoAgreed. In this case, a better title would be "California replaces 'Sell by' Labels with 'Use by', Hoping to Cut Food Waste" Still a simplification, but doesn't horribly mislead you into thinking it's a reckless policy.
- paleotrope 4mo agoHow does this change affect food waste by consumers?
- SilasX 4mo agoFor the reason the article gives: products would be labeled with the thing that actually matters for safely maximizing producing usage -- how long it's safe to actually use the product ("use by") -- rather than a cruder heuristic about when you should sell it, or vague language about when it's "best".
- rdiddly 4mo agoThe explanation is in the subtitle. Didn't even have to read the article on this one.
- zeroonetwothree 4mo agoI'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.
- sega_sai 4mo agoPresumably food producers benefit if people throw things out earlier, as they will buy more ?
- m4ck_ 4mo agoI'm pretty sure food producers are the ones putting the "sell by" labels on stuff, with the hope that people will needlessly throw away food and buy more because of that label.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- skybrian 4mo agoThey don't want grocery stores to carry product that's too old because customers will try it and decide they don't like it, not realizing that it's old. And a grocery store worker won't know when to get rid of it unless someone tells them. And from a grocery store's point of view, product that's on the shelf too long isn't selling. It's taking up space that could be used for something else.
- Cider9986 4mo ago>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/which-state-has-the-most-regulations 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?
- tikhonj 4mo agoRegulations aren't fungible, so this is not a particularly meaningful perspective.
- mc32 4mo agoI hope they refactor and harmonize them at some point to reduce duplication, contradiction as well as proliferation.
- vrganj 4mo agoAll of them? No. Some of them? Yes. Some examples: * ARL / Automatic Renewal Law: If a company allows you to sign up for a subscription online, they also must provide an immediate, straightforward way to cancel it online. * SB 478: No bullshit junk fees tacked on to prices. Any price displayed, be it for concerts, hotels, or whatever else, must be the full, out-the-door price. * SB 244: Right to Repair: Electronics and appliance manufacturers must make diagnostic tools, manuals etc available for at least 7 years after manufacture.
- WaxProlix 4mo agoDoes SB478 apply to car dealerships? That would be a huge boon to consumers on its own.
- luisln 4mo agoCar dealerships were exempt from SB 478. However, California's CARS Act, which took effect July 1, 2025, prohibits misrepresentations about the costs or terms of purchasing, financing, or leasing a vehicle, including the availability of vehicles at an advertised price.
- irishcoffee 4mo agoIt’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.
- lokar 4mo agoThe only water problems are for farmers growing in a semi-arid valley. California has droughts, not water shortages.
- EgregiousCube 4mo agoNot the /only/ water problems... https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/conservation/regs/water_efficiency_legislation.html https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/conservation/regs/water_effic...
- lokar 4mo agoI’m not sure what to focus on in that site, what did you have in mind? Agg uses like 80% of consumer water. Almost all of this is land that has only been farmed since the Feds build a bunch of water projects starting in the 30s. Most of the irrigated farm land is owned by big corporations and extremely wealthy families. They push a narrative of mismanagement and shortages to get urban areas to use less and less while they resist investing in better irrigation methods.
- yieldcrv 4mo agocan’t wait for a new Regulatory Liability fee to be added to checks here
- sega_sai 4mo agoIn 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.
- skybrian 4mo ago> 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?
- blululu 4mo agoThis 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.
- TulliusCicero 4mo agoTo be fair, if we waited until there "no more pressing issues", then we'd never get any "quality of life" regulations passed like this.
- blululu 4mo agoYeah. I'd agree. This is a pretty quick and easy law with very few downsides. There is also a "good house keeping" aspect to this. The habit of keeping a house clean and tidy makes it easier to do the bigger and more substantive improvements. I'm a bit surprised that New York Times is reporting on such a small law passed so far away or that there are such negative comments about such laws here, but such is life.
- darth_avocado 4mo agoI don’t think it’s a nothing law. Not only does it help with reducing waste, but also a food safety thing. “Best by” or “best is used by” or “expiry dates” are pretty clear: use the product before the date. In my own case, we have a brand of bread that does “sell by”. There is not uniform standard on how many days after the date, the bread is safe to consume. Internet wisdom gives you a wide range.
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoPrevious discussion when the bill was passed in 2024: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41765006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41765006
- egberts1 4mo agoCan't rip the plastic wrap off to smell for rottenness. Absorbent pad adds to the price also hides the "purge". Harder to find meat without thousand poked holes (tenderizing) Can't tell if meat are colorized to hide browness. Time for me to visit my local butcher for a quarter cow, butchered. Also a bigger freezer chest too! "Packed On" or "Processed On" is the most accurate way to label meat, IMHO.
- malfist 4mo agoYou're not charged for the absorbent pad anymore than you're charged for the packaging. You can weigh the meat when you get home to verify yourself
- unsnap_biceps 4mo agoThe pad, no, but you do pay for the liquid that the pad soaks up from the overly hydrated meat. The cheaper chicken in my area is pumped full of salt water and is weighed as it's getting packed, but the pad absorbs a bunch of that water to keep the chicken from looking like it's sitting in a puddle.