You’ve probably done it. You open the fridge, spot the “sell by” date on a perfectly good carton of milk, and pour it down the drain, just to be safe.
These small decisions, when multiplied across millions of households, add up to more than 3.5 million tons of food thrown out every year in the United States due to date label confusion alone, according to ReFED.
And it’s entirely preventable.
Think about the last time you threw something out because the date on the package made you nervous. Maybe it was a block of cheese or a carton of eggs, perfectly edible and safe to eat, but you tossed it anyway. You’re not alone.
Americans waste an estimated $19.2 billion worth of food every year not because it’s gone bad, but because nobody can agree on what “best by,” “sell by,” and “use by” actually mean.
The thing is, most date labels have nothing to do with food safety. They’re a manufacturer’s best guess at peak freshness and nobody is required to use them consistently, meaning there’s no standardization with how the expiration on two different packs of deli meat, for example, should be labeled.
Decades in the making
Part of the problem has been building for decades. When the refrigerator became a household staple in the 1950s, the average model held 8 to 12 cubic feet of food. Today’s standard fridge holds nearly double that, and with more space to fill, more food gets lost in the back, forgotten until a date stamp determines its fate.
And years of inflation haven’t helped. Grocery bills are up nearly 30% since 2020, and yet billions of dollars worth of still-edible food keeps ending up in the trash.
Inflation didn’t just empty wallets. It changed how Americans shop, cook and think about the food sitting in their refrigerators.
So, what’s the solution? It starts with understanding what those date labels are actually telling you and what they aren’t. Most of them have nothing to do with safety.
They’re a manufacturer’s estimate of peak quality, and learning the difference between “this food is past its best” and “this food is unsafe to eat” can save a household hundreds of dollars a year.
Nate Clark, communications and content manager at ReFED, says the financial pressure of the last few years has already started pushing people in that direction.
“People started taking actions to maximize the value of the food they were already purchasing and sort of extend their grocery dollars.”
That means checking what’s already in the fridge before heading to the grocery store, planning meals around what needs to be used up first and knowing that a carton of milk a day past its sell-by date can still go in the bowl with your cereal.
Clark adds that reducing food waste doesn’t have to feel like a chore.
“People can reduce their food waste for whatever reason they really want to, whether that is environmentally motivated or financially motivated, because their neighbors are going hungry and they’re throwing out a perfectly good rotisserie chicken,” he says.
The big fix
The problem goes beyond household habits. The labeling process itself is broken, and legislation is quickly becoming a piece of the puzzle.
The federal Food Date Labeling Act, currently making its way through Congress, would standardize date labels across the country, replacing the current patchwork of inconsistent terms with a single, uniform system.
ReFED estimates the change alone could save consumers at least $1.3 billion annually and help retailers save $253 million through better inventory management.
The state of California, which is known for pioneering major movements for waste and recycling legislation in the US, passed its own date labeling law last year.
With every major food producer doing business in the state, which has the fourth largest economy in the world, the industry is already feeling pressure to get ahead of a federal standard before a state-by-state patchwork makes things even more complicated.
Clark says the timing has never been better to make a change in your food purchasing and consumption habits, and the bar to get started is lower than most people think.
“There are so many opportunities that every individual can take to make a reduction,” he said. “It’s inexcusable at this point to waste a third of the food that we produce and have one in seven people be food insecure.”
Know before you throw
A good place to start is knowing what those labels actually mean, which can be found on the USDA website.
“Sell by” is a message to the retailer. It tells the grocery store how long to keep the product on the shelf. It says nothing about whether the food is safe to eat after that date.
“Best by” is about quality, not safety. It’s the manufacturer’s estimate of when the product will be at its peak flavor or texture. Neither is an expiration date. Neither means the food is bad.
Until Congress gets a uniform system across the finish line, consumers are largely left to navigate a confusing and inconsistent labeling landscape on their own. The labels weren’t designed with your grocery bill in mind. But your purchasing decisions are yours, and so is what goes in the bin.
Next time you reach for that carton of milk or block of cheese, take a second look. Think before the bin.
Editor’s Note: Before the Bin is a monthly column for everyday consumers about the small choices that keep food, money and resources out of the trash.
