LOS ANGELES — You've decided to make a sandwich and reach for your loaf of bread, but the "sell-by date" on the bag has passed. You throw it in the trash to err on the side of caution, even though you're unsure whether it means the bread is past its expiration date.

A new California law will narrow the laundry list of food date labels on products to two, eliminating consumer confusion and halting the unintentional food waste that has resulted.

There are more than 50 distinct food date labels in the United States, according to a report published by researchers with the University of Maryland.

These are just a few of the phrases you might have seen on your food items:

•Use by

•Best by

•Expires by

•Please enjoy by

Each phrase can convey a different message about the food product.

Some date labels are intended to help store clerks with inventory management. Most label dates, however, are used by packaged-food companies to tell a consumer how long the product will remain at peak quality, said Andrea Collins, senior specialist in food waste for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on international environmental policies. A few labels are intended to tell a consumer that there is an increased risk of food-borne illness with increased time.

These meanings haven't been conveyed to the consumer, who, in their confusion, may unintentionally contribute to food waste by disposing of food they believe is spoiled.

A 2025 national survey conducted by Harvard Law School, John Hopkins and ReFED, a U.S.-based nonprofit working to solve food waste, found that of the more than 2,000 respondents, on average, 87% believed they knew the meanings of eight different labels, yet when quizzed, only an average of 53% answered correctly.

Nationally, the survey found that 43% of respondents always or usually discard food near or past the date on the label, up from 37% in 2016.

Californians toss out 2.5 billion meals' worth of unspoiled food each year, contributing to organic waste that accounts for 48% of what residents send to landfills, according to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecyle.

"As organic waste decomposes in landfills, it accounts for 41% of the state's methane emissions, a greenhouse gas with 84 times the power to heat the climate as carbon dioxide," according to CalRecycle.

The waste also affects consumers' wallets when food is thrown out too soon.

To remove the ambiguity and resulting food waste, Assembly Bill 660 was signed into law and goes into effect July 1, which ultimately will reduce the phrases allowed on packages to just two.

What AB 660 will do

The bill requires food manufacturers to use only two food date labels to mark the quality or safety of a food product in the state of California.

The two phrases are:

Starting next month, the law will prohibit the sale of any food product that isn't labeled with either phrase — this pertains to products manufactured on or after July 1, 2026. So you might still see a few different phrases on food products that were already on the shelves or in a retailer's stock.

It also prohibits the use of "sell by" dates on food packaging, but it does allow coded "sell by" dates that retain stock rotation information for retailers.

Why did California previously have so many food date labels?

It's a common misconception that the federal government regulates the dates on food. With the exception of infant formula, that isn't the case, Collins said.

The United States is one of the only countries that doesn't have a federal road map for state labels on food, "so that doesn't mean every country does it well, but they all have something," said Emily Broad Leib, clinical professor of law and director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation.

Starting in the late 1950s and accelerating in the 1970s, several states enacted laws that required a date label on certain foods. But that effort didn't set any nationwide standards for what it meant or what the language was, Broad Leib said.

At the time, the focus of the label was on freshness or how long a food product had been sitting on the shelf.

"Over time, a large majority of consumers interpreted those as safety dates, and so we have this real mismatch [of interpretation]," Broad Leib said.

Who enforces Assembly Bill 660

The primary responsibility for enforcing Assembly Bill 660, an amendment to the California Retail Food Code, falls on local enforcement, a spokesperson with the California Department of Public Health said.

"The California Retail Food Code establishes health and sanitation standards for retail food facilities, which are enforced by local health agencies during routine inspections," according to the state agency.

That means the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which is the local enforcement agency for these requirements in the region, will be in charge of monitoring whether businesses are following the law.

When violations are observed "during routine inspections or complaint investigations, it would be noted on the facility's Official Inspection Report, and appropriate enforcement action would be taken by Public Health," the Los Angeles Department of Public Health told The Times via email.

Broad Leib said she strongly believes this law is a step in the right direction.

"We should have only two labels, and it should be clear which one is for safety and which one is for quality, so that consumers [in California] can make better economic and safety decisions," she said.

At this point it's unclear what kind of training local health inspectors are getting to not only stop potential violators, but also to identify whether businesses are using the better of the two labels for each specific product, Broad Leib said.

"It could be something to watch out for or future, maybe, state-level guidance on how they should do these inspections," she said. "Or even guidance to businesses around making the decision of which label to use."

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