At a time when New Yorkers are watching their grocery bills go up and up, Albany is leaving a commonsense solution sitting on the table. The Food Date Labelling Act could help families like yours save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on food you waste every year. It’s an easy win for every New York household, and the Legislature should get it passed this spring.
Walk into any grocery store and you’ll see a confusing mix of labels: “sell by,” “best by” and “shelved on.” Most people assume these are safety warnings, and that the food isn’t safe to eat if the date is in the past.
But that’s not always true. In fact, it usually isn’t. Most kinds of food are safe long after the dates on their packages, even if they’re not quite as fresh as when they were sold. In many cases, they don’t even taste any different. A carton of yogurt kept in the fridge can be perfectly safe for weeks past the sell-by date. Cabinet stables like pasta, rice and cereals outlast their labels by months. Canned goods are safe for years.
The result: New Yorkers like you throw away literally tons of perfectly good food every year — and that’s cash in the trash.
We can save so much more food in New York. Here’s how
Confusion over date labels is one of the leading reasons Americans waste food. We discard about 3 billion pounds of food every year, worth $7 billion, because of date labels. Nearly 90% of consumers throw out food that is near or past a date label, even though these labels are very rarely regulated.
And because every brand does it differently, even careful shoppers often can’t make sense of it. The only way to fix this is to establish a new, simpler set of standards — which is exactly what the Food Date Labelling Act does.
The bill would replace today’s confusing set of labels with a simple, standardized system — one label for quality (“Best if Used By”) and one for safety (“Use By”). It doesn’t require date labels, but sets standards if producers decide to use them. That clarity would give consumers confidence to keep and use food that is still perfectly good, instead of throwing it away out of caution or confusion. Grocery stores would benefit too, because clearer labels mean fewer returns, fewer complaints, and customers who trust what they’re buying.
A similar policy has been proposed at the federal level with bipartisan support, backed by food industry leaders, anti-hunger advocates, and environmental groups. But New York doesn’t need to wait for Congress to act. Our state has a long history of leading on consumer protection, and this is exactly the kind of practical, popular reform on which Albany is well positioned to lead.
New York’s bill would reduce waste and make the food system more efficient, and would be good for the climate, too. Food waste accounts for 58% of methane emissions, a potent climate change contributor, that escape from landfills.
But the biggest win is the annual savings on food New York families will see if it passes. At very little cost, standardizing date labels nationwide could save U.S. consumers upwards of $1.23 billion annually. We live in a time where families are stretching their grocery budgets, and we should be doing everything we can to help them get the most out of every penny.
So many Albany debates involve policy that is complex, expensive, or politically contentious, but this change is none of those. It’s a simple, practical response to the rising cost of living. The Food Date Labelling Act will save money immediately for New York families, one shopping trip at a time. The legislature can and must pass it.
Claire Walsh Winsler is director of Food, Agriculture, and Land Use at Environmental Advocates NY.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Food waste costs NY families thousands. We can fix it. | Opinion
Reporting by Claire Walsh Winsler, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
