Food & Climate
Not every food expiration date makes it inedible, that contrary to popular belief, expiration dates may not draw a hard line between edible and inedible.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), apart from infant formula, these dates are not required by federal law and do not indicate product safety, but instead its assumed freshness by the manufacturer.
After the date passes, perishable foods may deteriorate in quality or change in taste, however, they remain safe for eating. It is up to the consumers themselves to determine whether a product shows signs of spoilage, according a report seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
“Fruit and vegetables don’t come with dates, so I judge by looking at them, but food that has dates, or comes in labeled containers, like jars, I determine visually and by smell,” said Carlmont parent Tak Frazita. “If something looks off, I don’t consume it, but if it looks fine, then I do.”
Consumers and adhering to food expiration date
Selena Mao is a research manager at ReFED, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing food loss and waste through data. She shares Frazita’s viewpoint, emphasizing that consumers should rely on their own judgment rather than strictly adhering to food expiration date.
“It’s important to remember that food doesn’t really come with a stopwatch,” Mao said. “Oftentimes, the best barometer for assessing whether or not food is good is trusting your senses. Trust your gut instincts — if it smells bad, if it looks bad, and if it feels weird — not just a stamp on the package.”
It’s important to remember that food doesn’t really come with a stopwatch. Oftentimes, the best barometer for assessing whether or not food is good is trusting your senses. Trust your gut instincts — if it smells bad, if it looks bad, and if it feels weird — not just a stamp on the package.
USDA also estimates that 30% of the food supply — or 80 million tons according to ReFED — is lost at the consumer and retail levels. One source of the loss is outlined as customers throwing away wholesome food due to misconceptions about the detailing of labeled dates.
“On the grocery store shelves today, there are more than 50 differently phrased date labels on packaged food,” Mao said. “Some phrases are used to communicate the peak freshness of a product, or when a product is no longer safe to eat. Others, like ‘Sell-By,’ are only used to inform stock rotation, but the downstream impact of that is it leads a lot of consumers into thinking that that product is no longer safe to eat.”
Legislation is working to correct this, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing Assembly Bill (AB) 660 last year. The bill requires standardized dating language, including “Best if Used By” to state quality in comparison to “Use-By” as an indicator of actual food safety. It will take effect on July 1, 2026.
“Our hope is that AB 660 will provide the blueprint for more federal-level action. It’s really remarkable: Newsom’s signature of really a first-in-the-nation bill we think will start to end consumer confusion on expiration dates that so many of us have experienced,” Mao said.
Other countries, such as France, have also joined the effort. The first country to do so, their 2016 law bans grocery stores from throwing away excess food approaching their dates, prompting them to donate to food banks and charities, according to “Scot Scoop”.
Food waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports food waste as the single most common item to be found in landfills or incinerated in the United States.
According to the U.N., it makes up an annual 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, nearly five times those generated from aviation.
“When food is sent to landfills, it doesn’t just sit there; it decomposes and emits methane,” Mao said.
Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases. It is 86 times more potent in warming than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and can remain in the atmosphere for 12 years, thus drastically increasing the severity and rate of the climate crisis.
Not only this, but wasted food also becomes a product of wasted work, creating a combined $1 trillion toll on the global economy every year, according to the U.N.
“Wasting food means wasting all the resources — the water, the energy, the labor — that went into producing it. On an economic scale, we as consumers lose billions of dollars annually by bringing away food prematurely,” Mao said. “What we throw away alone, due to our inability to adequately perceive what date labels mean, leads to throwing away roughly $30.5 billion worth of perfectly good food a year.”
However, Mao still finds hope for a more sustainable future in the growing awareness and change in consumer behavior.