On 15 February 2017, the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the two biggest trade groups for the grocery industry, announced they’d devised standardized, voluntary regulations to make clear what all of those dates actually mean.
Right now “use by” represents a manufacturer’s best guess of how long a product maintains peak flavor. But many Americans still view the label as an expiration date, and won’t touch the product after the date on the packaging. “Best if Used by” will replace “use by” to hopefully make it clearer that this is only an indicator of quality, not an indicator of whether a product has gone bad. Most of the time, it’s perfectly fine to eat a food that is past its “use by” date.
The Department of Agriculture and an alliance of environmental groups have been urging the grocery industry to clarify these labels. After all, tossing out a perfectly good product is akin to throwing a handful of dollars in the trash. More importantly, it contributes to the already massive problem of food waste, which clogs landfills and causes greenhouse gas emissions.
The industry groups are pushing for manufacturers and retailers to start using the new labels immediately, but they have until July 2018 to make the changes. And because following the regulations is voluntary, it’s unlikely that every company will adopt them.
A number of major manufacturers have indicated that they’re on board with the new labels, including Walmart, the largest American grocer. The Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association expect the new labels will be widely adopted, partly because the standards were authored by a working group comprised of large food company representatives.