This measure would urge the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

This measure would urge the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

This bill measure would urge the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

This bill would urge the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

WHEREAS, Over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten; and

WHEREAS, Uneaten food wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy; and

WHEREAS, Food and organic material are the most common materials that end up in landfills and are incinerated in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Managing wasted food costs the United States $444 billion each year; and

WHEREAS, Food loss and food waste represent 8 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, Californias short-lived climate pollutant strategy targets reductions in organic waste disposal and increased rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the states methane production; and

WHEREAS, The United States has a goal to halve the amount of food loss and food waste in the country by 2030; and

WHEREAS, Consumer confusion about the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food would have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food; and

WHEREAS, California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with Assembly Bill 954; and

WHEREAS, The federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 is a bill designed to end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to ensure usable food is not thrown away; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature commends all public and private efforts to address consumer confusion over date labels on food but recognizes that efforts must be accelerated to ensure food in this country is not wasted; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmits copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

WHEREAS, Over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten; and

WHEREAS, Uneaten food wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy; and

WHEREAS, Food and organic material are the most common materials that end up in landfills and are incinerated in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Managing wasted food costs the United States $444 billion each year; and

WHEREAS, Food loss and food waste represent 8 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, Californias short-lived climate pollutant strategy targets reductions in organic waste disposal and increased rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the states methane production; and

WHEREAS, The United States has a goal to halve the amount of food loss and food waste in the country by 2030; and

WHEREAS, Consumer confusion about the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food would have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food; and

WHEREAS, California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with Assembly Bill 954; and

WHEREAS, The federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 is a bill designed to end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to ensure usable food is not thrown away; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature commends all public and private efforts to address consumer confusion over date labels on food but recognizes that efforts must be accelerated to ensure food in this country is not wasted; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmits copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

WHEREAS, Over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten; and

WHEREAS, Uneaten food wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy; and

WHEREAS, Food and organic material is are the most common material that ends materials that end up in landfills and are incinerated in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Managing wasted food costs the United States $444 billion each year; and

WHEREAS, Food loss and food waste represent 8 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, Californias short-lived climate pollutant strategy targets reductions in organic waste disposal and increased rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the states methane production; and

WHEREAS, The United States has a goal to halve the amount of food loss and food waste in the country by 2030; and

WHEREAS, Consumer confusion about the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food would have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food; and

WHEREAS, California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with Assembly Bill 954; and

WHEREAS, The federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 is a bill designed to end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to ensure usable food is not thrown away; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature commends all public and private efforts to address consumer confusion over date labels on food, food but recognizes that efforts must be accelerated to ensure that food in this country is not wasted; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmits copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

WHEREAS, Over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten; and

WHEREAS, Uneaten food wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy; and

WHEREAS, Food and organic material is the most common material that ends up in landfills and incinerated in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Managing wasted food costs the United States $444 billion each year; and

WHEREAS, Food loss and food waste represent 8 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; and

WHEREAS, Californias short-lived climate pollutant strategy targets reductions in organic waste disposal and increased rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the states methane production; and

WHEREAS, The United States has a goal to halve the amount of food loss and food waste in the country by 2030; and

WHEREAS, Consumer confusion about the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year; and

WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food would have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food; and

WHEREAS, California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with Assembly Bill 954; and

WHEREAS, The federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 is a bill designed to end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to ensure usable food is not thrown away; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature commends all public and private efforts to address consumer confusion over date labels on food, but recognizes that efforts must be accelerated to ensure that food in this country is not wasted; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmits copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS

CSA1 Bill Id:AJR 10

Author:(Irwin)

As Amended Ver:June 17, 2024

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

Senate Amendments

Make technical and clarifying changes and add a coauthor.

COMMENTS

1. Food Waste. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers, and consumers. Food waste burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity, and is a major contributor of climate change and pollution. Globally, the United Nations Environment Programme 2021 Food Waste Index Report estimates that 931 million tons of food waste was generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail. This suggests that 17% of total global food production may be wasted. The Food Waste Index Report also found that household per capita food waste generation is found to be broadly similar across country income groups, suggesting that action on food waste is equally relevant in high, upper‑middle, and lower‑middle income countries. This diverges from earlier narratives concentrating consumer food waste in developed countries, and food production, storage and transportation losses in developing countries.

In the United States, the Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40% of food is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer level. Each year, Americans are discarding approximately 133 billion pounds of food worth $161 billion. In California, the California Department of Food and Agriculture estimates that Californians throw away approximately 6 million tons of food waste annually. CalRecycle points out on its internet website that Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to have been recovered to feed people in need.

According to a 2022 study published on the Journal of Agriculture and Research entitled "Understanding and Addressing Food Waste From Confusion in Date Labeling Using a Stakeholder's Survey," the lack of uniformity of food date labels and lack of regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has widely lead to confusion among consumer, which is a significant contributor of food waste amounting to 20% total consumer food waste. Date labels such as "Best Before," "Best By," and "Use By," are highly inconsistent, are not science-based and vary widely across jurisdictions, brands, and food products. The article claims that more than 90% of Americans may be prematurely throwing food because of label misinterpretation.

1. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would establish requirements for the format of quality date and discard date labels on food packaging. Specifically, the Act would require the quality date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the quality of the item may deteriorate) to include the phrase BEST If Used By or the abbreviation BB. Similarly, the Act would require the discard date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the item should not be consumed) to include the phrase USE By or the abbreviation UB. The Act would only permit abbreviations if the full phrase does not fit on the label. The Food Date Labeling Act also authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture to specify alternative phrases through regulations.

According to the Author

Food products often feature phrases next to dates such as "Best By," "Expires On," "Use By," "Enjoy By," "Best Before," and "Sell By," among countless other variations. The author states that the meaning of these phrases can be unclear to average consumers as they can indicate a product's peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, in the case of "Sell By" dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. The author continues that these phrases are often all referred to as "expiration dates", which can lead to consumer confusion. With the exception of baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. The author continues that state rules can be widely inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to food being unnecessarily wasted, grocery budgets strained, and increased methane emissions from rotting food contributing to climate change. The author concludes that this resolution addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation which would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste.

Arguments in Support

Californians Against Waste and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) express support for this bill, stating that Reforming food date labeling will help the United States reach its goals of reducing food loss and waste by 50% by 2030 and the methane emission reduction goals of the Global Methane Pledge. In 2017, the legislature adopted the FDA-supported phrases "Use By" and "Best if Used By" labels set forth in AB 954 (Chiu), Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017, which outlined voluntary expiration date standards for brands. However, data collected from a 2018 consumer fridge study showed an estimated 43% compliance with the voluntary labeling standards endorsed by the Association, and a related 2019 store shelf study found only 36% of products displayed these recommended labels. Californians Against Waste and NRDC conclude that standardizing food date labeling is integral to the success of minimizing food waste and mitigating climate change.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

None.

VOTES:

ASM HEALTH: 16-0-0

YES: Bonta, Waldron, Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Wendy Carrillo, Flora, Haney, Jones-Sawyer, Maienschein, McCarty, Joe Patterson, Rodriguez, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Weber

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0-5

YES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lackey, Lee, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Papan, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rendon, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Robert Rivas

ABS, ABST OR NV: Wendy Carrillo, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Low, Mathis

SENATE FLOOR: 40-0-0

YES: Allen, Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Laird, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Padilla, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Seyarto, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener, Wilk

UPDATED

VERSION: June 17, 2024

CONSULTANT: Eliza Brooks / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN: 0003666

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: AJR 10

Author: Irwin (D), et al.

Amended: 6/17/24 in Senate

Vote: 21

SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 11-0, 5/29/24

AYES: Roth, Nguyen, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Limón, Menjivar, Rubio, Smallwood-Cuevas, Wiener

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 4/15/24 - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Food date labeling

SOURCE: Californians Against Waste

Natural Resources Defense Council

DIGEST:

This resolution urges the President of the United States and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

Senate Floor Amendments of 6/17/24 add co-author.

ANALYSIS: Existing federal law establishes, through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), various requirements for food labels under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which includes the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act and the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. These include requiring specified nutrition information, a listing of all ingredients, and whether a produce contains any of the eight major food allergens, such as milk, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, etc. [21 CFR §101 et seq.]

Existing state law:

1. Enacts the Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law, enforced by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), which provides broad authority for CDPH to enforce food safety requirements, including that food is not adulterated, misbranded, or falsely advertised. Food labeling requirements generally adopt federal food labeling laws as the state requirement, including nutrition labeling and allergen labeling, but CDPH is permitted, by regulation, to adopt additional food labeling regulations. [HSC §109875 et seq., §110380]
2. Defines “food,” in the Sherman Act, as any article used or intended for use for food, drink, confection, condiment, or chewing gum by man or other animal, including any article used or intended for use as a component of any of these items. [HSC §109935]
3. Requires raw shucked shellfish to bear a label that includes a “sell by” date or a “best if used by” date for packages with a capacity of less than one-half gallon, or the date shucked for packages with a capacity of one-half gallon or more. [HSC §114039]
4. Requires eggs that are packed for human consumption to be labeled with the words “sell-by” immediately followed by the month and day in bold type, and prohibits the sell-by date from exceeding 30 days from the date on which the eggs were packed. [FAC §27644]
5. Requires milk, cream, or milk products to have a date appear on the package or container that is the date upon which, in order to insure quality, the product is normally removed from the shelf or similar location from which the product is offered for sale to the consumer. [FAC §36004]

This resolution:

1. Declares that over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten, which wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy.
2. Finds that food loss and food waste make up eight percent of global greenhouse emissions created from human activity.
3. Finds that California’s short-lived climate pollutant strategy focuses on reducing organic waste disposal and increasing rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the state’s methane production.
4. Finds that the United States has a goal to reduce food loss and food waste by 50% in the country by 2030.
5. Finds that consumer confusion on the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food.
6. Finds that standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year as well as have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the U.S.
7. Finds that key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food and that California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statues of 2017).
8. Finds that the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to prevent the waste of usable food.
9. Urges, on behalf of the Assembly and Senate, the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Labeling Act of 2023.
10. Calls upon the Chief Clerk of the Assembly to transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in U.S. Congress.

Comments

1. Author’s statement. According to the author, food products often feature phrases next to dates such as “Best By,” “Expires On,” and “Sell By,” among countless other variations. These phrases can be unclear to consumers as they can indicate a product’s peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, for “Sell By” dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. These phrases are known as “expiration dates,” which can create consumer confusion. Apart from baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. Furthermore, state rules can be inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to wasted food, strained grocery budgets, and increased methane emissions from rotting food. AJR 10 addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation that would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste. The Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would require the use of two standard terms – “Best if used by” to indicate the quality date of food, or “Use by” to indicate the safety of food.
2. Background on federal labeling requirements and recommendations. The United States Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the Department of Agriculture, in an explainer on food product dating on their website, states that except for infant formula which requires a “Use By” date, product dating is not required by federal regulations. According to FSIS, for meat, poultry and egg products, dates may be voluntarily applied, provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month, and in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date, such as “Best if Used By.” FSIS states that manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality, and that except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product’s safety and are not required by federal law. To reduce confusion and wasted food, FSIS recommends that food manufacturers and retailers that apply product dating use a “Best if Used By” date. Research shows that this phrase conveys to consumers that the product will be of best quality if used by the calendar date shown. Foods not exhibiting signs of spoilage should be wholesome and may be sold, purchased, donated and consumed beyond the labeled “Best if Used By” date.
3. The problem of food waste. There have been numerous reports and studies looking at the abundance of food produced in the United States and the amount of safe food that ends up in landfills. The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report in March of 2017, entitled Don’t Waste, Donate: Enhancing Food Donations Through Federal Policy. According to this report, 40% of the U.S. food supply goes uneaten, resulting in at least 62.5 million tons of wasted food each year, and uneaten food is the single largest contributor of solid waste in our nation’s landfills. This report states that despite the large amount of discarded food, 12.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in 2015, meaning that at some point in the year they lacked access to a sufficient amount of food. The Food Waste Reduction Alliance, which is a joint project of the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the National Restaurant Association, conducts a survey every two years to collect data from food manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and restaurants in order to understand the current state of food waste. Their most recent survey, published in the Fall of 2016, found that donated food made up only 3.3% of total unsaleable food, and that transportation constraints was the most often cited barrier to donating and recycling. The survey found, however, that 58% of respondents are investing in increasing food donation for those in need, making it the most often cited investment area. The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic issued a report in October of 2016, entitled “Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities.” This report states that in recent years, state and local governments have sought to increase food recovery by providing state tax incentives to food donors, allocating funding to support food recovery infrastructure, re-evaluating how schools handle food waste, and passing laws that ban organic waste from landfills. With regard to liability protections, the report said states can improve liability protections by clarifying and expanding the federal Emerson Act, including extending protection to organizations that sell or otherwise charge for food, when donors donate directly to end-users, and when donors donate past-date foods. Additionally, the report stated that for liability protections to lead to increased food recovery, potential food donors need to know that such protections exist, and states can increase food donation by making potential food donors aware of the federal and state liability protections available.
4. Report on date labeling of food. The National Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic published a report in September of 2013, entitled The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America. According to this report, the lack of coordinated action at the federal level increases the complexity of the food labeling regime by causing a regulatory void that states and localities have attempted to fill in various ways, resulting in a tremendously varied set of state and local laws regarding the use of date labels. The report notes that industry has also attempted to provide direction, with some food trade associations creating voluntary guidance on date labeling practices for specific commodities that don’t necessarily help to improve public health. The report made several recommendations, including that “sell by” dates should be made invisible to the consumer as they are intended for stock control by retailers, and that the consumer-facing dating system be standardized to better inform consumers of the meaning of different dates and clearly delineate between safety-based and quality-based dates.
5. Industry report on progress toward “Best if Used By.” In 2019, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents a large number of grocery manufacturers, released a report entitled “Best if Clearly Labeled.” Subtitled, “How the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry is Reducing Confusion and Food Waste,” this report stated that the Consumer Brands Association along with the Food Marketing Institute brought together 25 consumer packaged goods and grocery retail companies to simplify and streamline the number of labels and bring much-needed clarity to consumers. They narrowed date labeling down to the two labels proposed by this bill, and that since launching in February 2017, 87% of products have adopted the streamlined phrases, according to a survey conducted by Consumer Brands Association in December 2018. Their survey found that 32,093 products carried the new labels, and that 85% of Americans say that the streamlined date labels are helpful to them. They expected complete adoption by January 2020.

Related/Prior Legislation

AB 2577 (Irwin, 2024) requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to meet the state’s edible food recovery goal to include product labeling requirements that reduce food waste. The bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file.

AB 660 (Irwin, 2023) requires food manufacturers, processors, and retailers responsible for the labeling of food products to use “BEST if Used by” to indicate quality, and “Use by” to indicate safety of a product, and would prohibit the use of the term “sell by.” The bill is set for hearing on 6/18/24 in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017) required the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with CDPH, to publish guidelines that encourage the voluntary use of uniform quality and safety dates on food products.

AB 1219 (Eggman, Chapter 619, Statutes of 2017) enacted the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which strengthens immunity protections for the donation of food, extends this immunity protection to any entity that donates food, rather than just food facilities, and requires local food facility enforcement officers to promote the recovery of food fit for human consumption during their routine inspections with handouts describing the immunity provisions association with the donation of food.

SB 557 (Hernandez, Chapter 285, Statutes of 2017) permits a local educational agency to provide sharing tables where faculty, staff and students can place prepackaged, non-potentially hazardous food items, or unpeeled fruit, that can be donated to a food bank or other nonprofit charitable organization.

AB 2725 (Chiu, 2016) would have required a food manufacturer using a quality or elevated risk date to use the phrases “best if used by” or “expires on,” as specified. The failed passage in the Assembly Health Committee.

AB 234 (Gordon, Chapter 616, Statutes of 2015) revised provisions of law governing community food producers or gleaners by allowing them to sell whole uncut fruits or vegetables, or unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to a permitted food facility, not just a restaurant, and limited the ability of a local environmental health officer to require community food producers or gleaners to register with the local enforcement entity only if the food producers or gleaners do not meet certain conditions.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 6/18/24)

Californians Against Waste (co-source)

Natural Resources Defense Council (co-source)

Climate Action California

Climate Reality Project, Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley

Elders Climate Action, NorCal

Elders Climate Action, SoCal

Santa Cruz Climate Action Network

350 Humboldt

350 Sacramento

OPPOSITION: (Verified 6/18/24)

None received

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: This resolution is co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste and Natural Resources Defense Council. Supporting organizations highlight that food waste in landfills create methane, which is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming and can deliver its entire climate-forcing impact over a span of twelve years. More than fifty differently phrased labels are used in the U.S. with varying definitions of the same term, and some labels contain no explanation next to dates on food items at all, which can lead to consumer confusion and premature waste of usable food. Supporters flagged a report from the Consumer Brands Association that claims 87% of their brands have implemented the voluntary expiration date standards set by AB 957 (Chiu of 2017). However, a 2018 consumer fridge study showed an estimated 43% compliance with the voluntary labeling standards and a similar 2019 store shelf study found only 36% of products had used the recommended phrases. They argue that standardizing food date labeling is integral to achieving the goals of minimizing food waste and mitigating climate change.

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 4/15/24

AYES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lackey, Lee, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Papan, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rendon, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Robert Rivas

NO VOTE RECORDED: Wendy Carrillo, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Low, Mathis

Prepared by: Margarita Niemann / HEALTH / (916) 651-4111

6/19/24 11:53:24

**** END ****

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: AJR 10

Author: Irwin (D)

Introduced: 8/24/23

Vote: 21

SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE: 11-0, 5/29/24

AYES: Roth, Nguyen, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Limón, Menjivar, Rubio, Smallwood-Cuevas, Wiener

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 4/15/24 - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Food date labeling

SOURCE: Californians Against Waste (co-source)

Natural Resources Defense Council (co-source)

DIGEST:

This resolution urges the President of the United States and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

ANALYSIS: Existing federal law establishes, through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), various requirements for food labels under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which includes the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act and the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. These include requiring specified nutrition information, a listing of all ingredients, and whether a produce contains any of the eight major food allergens, such as milk, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, etc. [21 CFR §101 et seq.]

Existing state law:

1. Enacts the Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law, enforced by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), which provides broad authority for CDPH to enforce food safety requirements, including that food is not adulterated, misbranded, or falsely advertised. Food labeling requirements generally adopt federal food labeling laws as the state requirement, including nutrition labeling and allergen labeling, but CDPH is permitted, by regulation, to adopt additional food labeling regulations. [HSC §109875 et seq., §110380]
2. Defines “food,” in the Sherman Act, as any article used or intended for use for food, drink, confection, condiment, or chewing gum by man or other animal, including any article used or intended for use as a component of any of these items. [HSC §109935]
3. Requires raw shucked shellfish to bear a label that includes a “sell by” date or a “best if used by” date for packages with a capacity of less than one-half gallon, or the date shucked for packages with a capacity of one-half gallon or more. [HSC §114039]
4. Requires eggs that are packed for human consumption to be labeled with the words “sell-by” immediately followed by the month and day in bold type, and prohibits the sell-by date from exceeding 30 days from the date on which the eggs were packed. [FAC §27644]
5. Requires milk, cream, or milk products to have a date appear on the package or container that is the date upon which, in order to insure quality, the product is normally removed from the shelf or similar location from which the product is offered for sale to the consumer. [FAC §36004]

This resolution:

1. Declares that over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten, which wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy.
2. Finds that food loss and food waste make up eight percent of global greenhouse emissions created from human activity.
3. Finds that California’s short-lived climate pollutant strategy focuses on reducing organic waste disposal and increasing rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the state’s methane production.
4. Finds that the United States has a goal to reduce food loss and food waste by 50% in the country by 2030.
5. Finds that consumer confusion on the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food.
6. Finds that standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year as well as have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the U.S.
7. Finds that key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food and that California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statues of 2017).
8. Finds that the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to prevent the waste of usable food.
9. Urges, on behalf of the Assembly and Senate, the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Labeling Act of 2023.
10. Calls upon the Chief Clerk of the Assembly to transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in U.S. Congress.

Comments

1. Author’s statement. According to the author, food products often feature phrases next to dates such as “Best By,” “Expires On,” and “Sell By,” among countless other variations. These phrases can be unclear to consumers as they can indicate a product’s peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, for “Sell By” dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. These phrases are known as “expiration dates,” which can create consumer confusion. Apart from baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. Furthermore, state rules can be inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to wasted food, strained grocery budgets, and increased methane emissions from rotting food. AJR 10 addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation that would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste. The Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would require the use of two standard terms – “Best if used by” to indicate the quality date of food, or “Use by” to indicate the safety of food.
2. Background on federal labeling requirements and recommendations. The United States Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the Department of Agriculture, in an explainer on food product dating on their website, states that except for infant formula which requires a “Use By” date, product dating is not required by federal regulations. According to FSIS, for meat, poultry and egg products, dates may be voluntarily applied, provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month, and in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date, such as “Best if Used By.” FSIS states that manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality, and that except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product’s safety and are not required by federal law. To reduce confusion and wasted food, FSIS recommends that food manufacturers and retailers that apply product dating use a “Best if Used By” date. Research shows that this phrase conveys to consumers that the product will be of best quality if used by the calendar date shown. Foods not exhibiting signs of spoilage should be wholesome and may be sold, purchased, donated and consumed beyond the labeled “Best if Used By” date.
3. The problem of food waste. There have been numerous reports and studies looking at the abundance of food produced in the United States and the amount of safe food that ends up in landfills. The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report in March of 2017, entitled Don’t Waste, Donate: Enhancing Food Donations Through Federal Policy. According to this report, 40% of the U.S. food supply goes uneaten, resulting in at least 62.5 million tons of wasted food each year, and uneaten food is the single largest contributor of solid waste in our nation’s landfills. This report states that despite the large amount of discarded food, 12.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in 2015, meaning that at some point in the year they lacked access to a sufficient amount of food. The Food Waste Reduction Alliance, which is a joint project of the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the National Restaurant Association, conducts a survey every two years to collect data from food manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and restaurants in order to understand the current state of food waste. Their most recent survey, published in the Fall of 2016, found that donated food made up only 3.3% of total unsaleable food, and that transportation constraints was the most often cited barrier to donating and recycling. The survey found, however, that 58% of respondents are investing in increasing food donation for those in need, making it the most often cited investment area. The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic issued a report in October of 2016, entitled “Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities.” This report states that in recent years, state and local governments have sought to increase food recovery by providing state tax incentives to food donors, allocating funding to support food recovery infrastructure, re-evaluating how schools handle food waste, and passing laws that ban organic waste from landfills. With regard to liability protections, the report said states can improve liability protections by clarifying and expanding the federal Emerson Act, including extending protection to organizations that sell or otherwise charge for food, when donors donate directly to end-users, and when donors donate past-date foods. Additionally, the report stated that for liability protections to lead to increased food recovery, potential food donors need to know that such protections exist, and states can increase food donation by making potential food donors aware of the federal and state liability protections available.
4. Report on date labeling of food. The National Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic published a report in September of 2013, entitled The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America. According to this report, the lack of coordinated action at the federal level increases the complexity of the food labeling regime by causing a regulatory void that states and localities have attempted to fill in various ways, resulting in a tremendously varied set of state and local laws regarding the use of date labels. The report notes that industry has also attempted to provide direction, with some food trade associations creating voluntary guidance on date labeling practices for specific commodities that don’t necessarily help to improve public health. The report made several recommendations, including that “sell by” dates should be made invisible to the consumer as they are intended for stock control by retailers, and that the consumer-facing dating system be standardized to better inform consumers of the meaning of different dates and clearly delineate between safety-based and quality-based dates.
5. Industry report on progress toward “Best if Used By.” In 2019, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents a large number of grocery manufacturers, released a report entitled “Best if Clearly Labeled.” Subtitled, “How the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry is Reducing Confusion and Food Waste,” this report stated that the Consumer Brands Association along with the Food Marketing Institute brought together 25 consumer packaged goods and grocery retail companies to simplify and streamline the number of labels and bring much-needed clarity to consumers. They narrowed date labeling down to the two labels proposed by this bill, and that since launching in February 2017, 87% of products have adopted the streamlined phrases, according to a survey conducted by Consumer Brands Association in December 2018. Their survey found that 32,093 products carried the new labels, and that 85% of Americans say that the streamlined date labels are helpful to them. They expected complete adoption by January 2020.

Related/Prior Legislation

AB 2577 (Irwin, 2024) requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to meet the state’s edible food recovery goal to include product labeling requirements that reduce food waste. The bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file.

AB 660 (Irwin, 2023) requires food manufacturers, processors, and retailers responsible for the labeling of food products to use “BEST if Used by” to indicate quality, and “Use by” to indicate safety of a product, and would prohibit the use of the term “sell by.” The bill is pending in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017) required the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with CDPH, to publish guidelines that encourage the voluntary use of uniform quality and safety dates on food products.

AB 1219 (Eggman, Chapter 619, Statutes of 2017) enacted the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which strengthens immunity protections for the donation of food, extends this immunity protection to any entity that donates food, rather than just food facilities, and requires local food facility enforcement officers to promote the recovery of food fit for human consumption during their routine inspections with handouts describing the immunity provisions association with the donation of food.

SB 557 (Hernandez, Chapter 285, Statutes of 2017) permits a local educational agency to provide sharing tables where faculty, staff and students can place prepackaged, non-potentially hazardous food items, or unpeeled fruit, that can be donated to a food bank or other nonprofit charitable organization.

AB 2725 (Chiu, 2016) would have required a food manufacturer using a quality or elevated risk date to use the phrases “best if used by” or “expires on,” as specified. The failed passage in the Assembly Health Committee.

AB 234 (Gordon, Chapter 616, Statutes of 2015) revised provisions of law governing community food producers or gleaners by allowing them to sell whole uncut fruits or vegetables, or unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to a permitted food facility, not just a restaurant, and limited the ability of a local environmental health officer to require community food producers or gleaners to register with the local enforcement entity only if the food producers or gleaners do not meet certain conditions.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 5/29/24)

Californians Against Waste (co-source)

Natural Resources Defense Council (co-source)

Climate Action California

Climate Reality Project, Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley

Elders Climate Action, NorCal

Elders Climate Action, SoCal

Santa Cruz Climate Action Network

350 Humboldt

350 Sacramento

OPPOSITION: (Verified 5/29/24)

None received

ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: This resolution is co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste and Natural Resources Defense Council. Supporting organizations highlight that food waste in landfills create methane, which is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming and can deliver its entire climate-forcing impact over a span of twelve years. More than fifty differently phrased labels are used in the U.S. with varying definitions of the same term, and some labels contain no explanation next to dates on food items at all, which can lead to consumer confusion and premature waste of usable food. Supporters flagged a report from the Consumer Brands Association that claims 87% of their brands have implemented the voluntary expiration date standards set by AB 957 (Chiu of 2017). However, a 2018 consumer fridge study showed an estimated 43% compliance with the voluntary labeling standards and a similar 2019 store shelf study found only 36% of products had used the recommended phrases. They argue that standardizing food date labeling is integral to achieving the goals of minimizing food waste and mitigating climate change.

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 4/15/24

AYES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lackey, Lee, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Papan, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rendon, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Robert Rivas

NO VOTE RECORDED: Wendy Carrillo, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Low, Mathis

Prepared by: Margarita Niemann / HEALTH / (916) 651-4111

5/29/24 16:25:58

**** END ****

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

Senator Richard Roth, Chair

BILL NO: AJR 10

SUBJECT: Food date labeling

SUMMARY:

Urges the President and U.S. Congress to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

Existing state law:

1. Enacts the Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law, enforced by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), which provides broad authority for CDPH to enforce food safety requirements, including that food is not adulterated, misbranded, or falsely advertised. Food labeling requirements generally adopt federal food labeling laws as the state requirement, including nutrition labeling and allergen labeling, but CDPH is permitted, by regulation, to adopt additional food labeling regulations. [HSC §109875 et seq., §110380]
2. Defines “food,” in the Sherman Act, as any article used or intended for use for food, drink, confection, condiment, or chewing gum by man or other animal, including any article used or intended for use as a component of any of these items. [HSC §109935]
3. Requires raw shucked shellfish to bear a label that includes a “sell by” date or a “best if used by” date for packages with a capacity of less than one-half gallon, or the date shucked for packages with a capacity of one-half gallon or more. [HSC §114039]
4. Requires eggs that are packed for human consumption to be labeled with the words “sell-by” immediately followed by the month and day in bold type, and prohibits the sell-by date from exceeding 30 days from the date on which the eggs were packed. [FAC §27644]
5. Requires milk, cream, or milk products to have a date appear on the package or container that is the date upon which, in order to insure quality, the product is normally removed from the shelf or similar location from which the product is offered for sale to the consumer. [FAC §36004]

Existing federal law: Establishes, through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), various requirements for food labels under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which includes the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act and the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. These include requiring specified nutrition information, a listing of all ingredients, and whether a produce contains any of the eight major food allergens, such as milk, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, etc. [21 CFR §101 et seq.]

This resolution:

1. Declares that over one-third of food in the U.S. is never eaten, which wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy.
2. Finds that food loss and food waste make up eight percent of global greenhouse emissions created from human activity.
3. Finds that California’s short-lived climate pollutant strategy focuses on reducing organic waste disposal and increasing rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the state’s methane production.
4. Finds that the U.S. has a goal to reduce food loss and food waste by 50% in the country by 2030.
5. Finds that consumer confusion on the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food.
6. Finds that standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year as well as have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the U.S.
7. Finds that key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food and that California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statues of 2017).
8. Finds that the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to prevent the waste of usable food.
9. Urges, on behalf of the Assembly and Senate, the President and Congress of the U.S. to enact the federal Food Labeling Act of 2023.
10. Calls upon the Chief Clerk of the Assembly to transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the U.S., to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative form California in U.S. Congress.

FISCAL EFFECT:

This resolution is keyed non-fiscal.

PRIOR VOTES:

COMMENTS:

1. Author’s statement. According to the author, food products often feature phrases next to dates such as “Best By,” “Expires On,” and “Sell By,” among countless other variations. These phrases can be unclear to consumers as they can indicate a product’s peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, for “Sell By” dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. These phrases are known as “expiration dates,” which can create consumer confusion. Apart from baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. Furthermore, state rules can be inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to wasted food, strained grocery budgets, and increased methane emissions from rotting food. AJR 10 addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation that would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste. The Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would require the use of two standard terms – “Best if used by” to indicate the quality date of food, or “Use by” to indicate the safety of food.
2. Background on federal labeling requirements and recommendations. The United States Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the Department of Agriculture, in an explainer on food product dating on their website, states that except for infant formula which requires a “Use By” date, product dating is not required by federal regulations. According to FSIS, for meat, poultry and egg products, dates may be voluntarily applied, provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month, and in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date, such as “Best if Used By.” FSIS states that manufacturers provide dating to help consumers and retailers decide when food is of best quality, and that except for infant formula, dates are not an indicator of the product’s safety and are not required by federal law. To reduce confusion and wasted food, FSIS recommends that food manufacturers and retailers that apply product dating use a “Best if Used By” date. Research shows that this phrase conveys to consumers that the product will be of best quality if used by the calendar date shown. Foods not exhibiting signs of spoilage should be wholesome and may be sold, purchased, donated and consumed beyond the labeled “Best if Used By” date.
3. The problem of food waste. There have been numerous reports and studies looking at the abundance of food produced in the U.S. and the amount of safe food that ends up in landfills. The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report in March of 2017, entitled Don’t Waste, Donate: Enhancing Food Donations Through Federal Policy. According to this report, 40% of the U.S. food supply goes uneaten, resulting in at least 62.5 million tons of wasted food each year, and uneaten food is the single largest contributor of solid waste in our nation’s landfills. This report states that despite the large amount of discarded food, 12.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in 2015, meaning that at some point in the year they lacked access to a sufficient amount of food. The Food Waste Reduction Alliance, which is a joint project of the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the National Restaurant Association, conducts a survey every two years to collect data from food manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and restaurants in order to understand the current state of food waste. Their most recent survey, published in the Fall of 2016, found that donated food made up only 3.3% of total unsaleable food, and that transportation constraints was the most often cited barrier to donating and recycling. The survey found, however, that 58% of respondents are investing in increasing food donation for those in need, making it the most often cited investment area. The Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic issued a report in October of 2016, entitled “Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities.” This report states that in recent years, state and local governments have sought to increase food recovery by providing state tax incentives to food donors, allocating funding to support food recovery infrastructure, re-evaluating how schools handle food waste, and passing laws that ban organic waste from landfills. With regard to liability protections, the report said states can improve liability protections by clarifying and expanding the federal Emerson Act, including extending protection to organizations that sell or otherwise charge for food, when donors donate directly to end-users, and when donors donate past-date foods. Additionally, the report stated that for liability protections to lead to increased food recovery, potential food donors need to know that such protections exist, and states can increase food donation by making potential food donors aware of the federal and state liability protections available.
4. Report on date labeling of food. The National Resources Defense Council and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic published a report in September of 2013, entitled The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America. According to this report, the lack of coordinated action at the federal level increases the complexity of the food labeling regime by causing a regulatory void that states and localities have attempted to fill in various ways, resulting in a tremendously varied set of state and local laws regarding the use of date labels. The report notes that industry has also attempted to provide direction, with some food trade associations creating voluntary guidance on date labeling practices for specific commodities that don’t necessarily help to improve public health. The report made several recommendations, including that “sell by” dates should be made invisible to the consumer as they are intended for stock control by retailers, and that the consumer-facing dating system be standardized to better inform consumers of the meaning of different dates and clearly delineate between safety-based and quality-based dates.
5. Industry report on progress toward “Best if Used By.” In 2019, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents a large number of grocery manufacturers, released a report entitled “Best if Clearly Labeled.” Subtitled, “How the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry is Reducing Confusion and Food Waste,” this report stated that the Consumer Brands Association along with the Food Marketing Institute brought together 25 consumer packaged goods and grocery retail companies to simplify and streamline the number of labels and bring much-needed clarity to consumers. They narrowed date labeling down to the two labels proposed by this bill, and that since launching in February 2017, 87% of products have adopted the streamlined phrases, according to a survey conducted by Consumer Brands Association in December 2018. Their survey found that 32,093 products carried the new labels, and that 85% of Americans say that the streamlined date labels are helpful to them. They expected complete adoption by January 2020.
6. Related legislation. AB 660 (Irwin of 2023) would require food manufacturers, processors, and retailers responsible for the labeling of food products to use “BEST if Used by” to indicate quality, and “Use by” to indicate safety of a product, and would prohibit the use of the term “sell by.” AB 660 is pending in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

AB 2577 (Irwin of 2024) would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to meet the state’s edible food recovery goal to include product labeling requirements that reduce food waste. AB 2577 was held on the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file.

1. Prior legislation. AB 954 (Chiu, Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017) requires the California Department of Food and Agriculture, in consultation with CDPH, to publish guidelines that encourage the voluntary use of uniform quality and safety dates on food products.
   
   AB 1219 (Eggman, Chapter 619, Statutes of 2017) enacted the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which strengthens immunity protections for the donation of food, extends this immunity protection to any entity that donates food, rather than just food facilities, and requires local food facility enforcement officers to promote the recovery of food fit for human consumption during their routine inspections with handouts describing the immunity provisions association with the donation of food.
   
   SB 557 (Hernandez, Chapter 285, Statutes of 2017) permits a local educational agency to provide sharing tables where faculty, staff and students can place prepackaged, non-potentially hazardous food items, or unpeeled fruit, that can be donated to a food bank or other nonprofit charitable organization.

AB 2725 (Chiu of 2016) would have required a food manufacturer using a quality or elevated risk date to use the phrases “best if used by” or “expires on,” as specified. AB 2725 failed passage in the Assembly Health Committee.

AB 234 (Gordon, Chapter 616, Statutes of 2015) revised provisions of law governing community food producers or gleaners by allowing them to sell whole uncut fruits or vegetables, or unrefrigerated shell eggs, directly to a permitted food facility, not just a restaurant, and limited the ability of a local environmental health officer to require community food producers or gleaners to register with the local enforcement entity only if the food producers or gleaners do not meet certain conditions.

1. Support. This bill is co-sponsored by Californians Against Waste and Natural Resources Defense Council. Supporting organizations highlight that food waste in landfills create methane, which is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a cause of global warming and can deliver its entire climate-forcing impact over a span of twelve years. More than fifty differently phrased labels are used in the U.S. with varying definitions of the same term, and some labels contain no explanation next to dates on food items at all, which can lead to consumer confusion and premature waste of usable food. Supporters flagged a report from the Consumer Brands Association that claims 87% of their brands have implemented the voluntary expiration date standards set by AB 957 (Chiu of 2017). However, a 2018 consumer fridge study showed an estimated 43% compliance with the voluntary labeling standards and a similar 2019 store shelf study found only 36% of products had used the recommended phrases. They argue that standardizing food date labeling is integral to achieving the goals of minimizing food waste and mitigating climate change.

SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:

Support: Californians Against Waste (co-sponsor)

Natural Resources Defense Council (co-sponsor)

Climate Action California

Climate Reality Project, Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley

Elders Climate Action, NorCal

Elders Climate Action, SoCal

Santa Cruz Climate Action Network

350 Humboldt

350 Sacramento

Oppose: None received.

-- END --

ASSEMBLY THIRD READING

ATR Bill Id:AJR 10

Author:(Irwin)

As Introduced Ver:August 24, 2023

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.

Major Provisions

COMMENTS

1. Food Waste. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers, and consumers. Food waste burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity, and is a major contributor of climate change and pollution. Globally, the United Nations Environment Programme 2021 Food Waste Index Report estimates that 931 million tons of food waste was generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail. This suggests that 17% of total global food production may be wasted. The Food Waste Index Report also found that household per capita food waste generation is found to be broadly similar across country income groups, suggesting that action on food waste is equally relevant in high, upper‑middle, and lower‑middle income countries. This diverges from earlier narratives concentrating consumer food waste in developed countries, and food production, storage and transportation losses in developing countries.

In the United States, the Department of Agriculture estimates that 30 to 40% of food is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer level. Each year, Americans are discarding approximately 133 billion pounds of food worth $161 billion. In California, the California Department of Food and Agriculture estimates that Californians throw away approximately 6 million tons of food waste annually. CalRecycle points out on its internet website that Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to have been recovered to feed people in need.

According to a 2022 study published on the Journal of Agriculture and Research entitled "Understanding and Addressing Food Waste From Confusion in Date Labeling Using a Stakeholder's Survey," the lack of uniformity of food date labels and lack of regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has widely lead to confusion among consumer, which is a significant contributor of food waste amounting to 20% total consumer food waste. Date labels such as "Best Before," "Best By," and "Use By," are highly inconsistent, are not science-based and vary widely across jurisdictions, brands, and food products. The article claims that more than 90% of Americans may be prematurely throwing food because of label misinterpretation.

1. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would establish requirements for the format of quality date and discard date labels on food packaging. Specifically, the Act would require the quality date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the quality of the item may deteriorate) to include the phrase BEST If Used By or the abbreviation BB. Similarly, the Act would require the discard date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the item should not be consumed) to include the phrase USE By or the abbreviation UB. The Act would only permit abbreviations if the full phrase does not fit on the label. The Food Date Labeling Act also authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture to specify alternative phrases through regulations.

According to the Author

Food products often feature phrases next to dates such as "Best By," "Expires On," "Use By," "Enjoy By," "Best Before," and "Sell By," among countless other variations. The author states that the meaning of these phrases can be unclear to average consumers as they can indicate a product's peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, in the case of "Sell By" dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. The author continues that these phrases are often all referred to as "expiration dates", which can lead to consumer confusion. With the exception of baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. The author continues that state rules can be widely inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to food being unnecessarily wasted, grocery budgets strained, and increased methane emissions from rotting food contributing to climate change. The author concludes that this resolution addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation which would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste.

Arguments in Support

Californians Against Waste and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) express support for this bill, stating that Reforming food date labeling will help the United States reach its goals of reducing food loss and waste by 50% by 2030 and the methane emission reduction goals of the Global Methane Pledge. In 2017, the legislature adopted the FDA-supported phrases "Use By" and "Best if Used By" labels set forth in AB 954 (Chiu), Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017, which outlined voluntary expiration date standards for brands. However, data collected from a 2018 consumer fridge study showed an estimated 43% compliance with the voluntary labeling standards endorsed by the Association, and a related 2019 store shelf study found only 36% of products displayed these recommended labels. Californians Against Waste and NRDC conclude that standardizing food date labeling is integral to the success of minimizing food waste and mitigating climate change.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

None.

VOTES

ASM HEALTH: 16-0-0

YES: Bonta, Waldron, Aguiar-Curry, Arambula, Wendy Carrillo, Flora, Haney, Jones-Sawyer, Maienschein, McCarty, Joe Patterson, Rodriguez, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Weber

UPDATED

VERSION: August 24, 2023

CONSULTANT: Eliza Brooks / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN: 0002723

Date of Hearing: April 9, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

Mia Bonta, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AJR 10 (

Author:(Irwin) – As Introduced Ver:August 24, 2023

SUBJECT: Food date labeling.

SUMMARY: Urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023. Specifically, this resolution:

1. Finds and declares the following:
   1. Over one-third of food in the United States is never eaten; and,
   2. Uneaten food wastes agricultural land, water, chemicals, and energy; and,
   3. Food and organic material is the most common material that ends up in landfills and incinerated in the United States; and,
   4. Managing wasted food costs the United States $444 billion each year; and,
   5. WHEREAS, Food loss and food waste represent 8 % of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions; and,
   6. WHEREAS, California’s short-lived climate pollutant strategy targets reductions in organic waste disposal and increased rescue of surplus food for people to eat in order to cut the state’s methane production; and,
   7. WHEREAS, The United States has a goal to halve the amount of food loss and food waste in the country by 2030; and,
   8. WHEREAS, Consumer confusion about the meaning of date labels on food is a leading cause of wasted food; and,
   9. WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food has the potential to divert 800,000 tons of food waste from landfills and incineration each year; and,
   10. WHEREAS, Standardizing date labels on food would have a net financial benefit of $3.55 billion in the United States; and,
   11. WHEREAS, Key food brands and industry associations have voluntarily adopted streamlined date labeling phrases on food; and,
   12. WHEREAS, California enacted the voluntary date labeling on food standard in 2017 with Assembly Bill 954; and,
   13. WHEREAS, The federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 is a bill designed to end consumer confusion around food date labeling by standardizing date labels on food products to ensure usable food is not thrown away.
2. Resolves:
   1. That the Legislature urges the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023; and be it further,
   2. That the Legislature commends all public and private efforts to address consumer confusion over date labels on food, but recognizes that efforts must be accelerated to ensure that food in this country is not wasted; and be it further,
   3. That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmits copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Requires the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), in consultation with the Department of Public Health (DPH) to publish information that encourages food manufacturers, processors, and retailers responsible for the labeling of food products to voluntarily use the following uniform terms on food product labels to communicate quality dates and safety dates:
   1. “BEST if Used by” or “BEST if Used or Frozen by” to indicate the quality date of a product; and,
   2. “USE by” or “USE by or Freeze by” to indicate the safety date of a product. [Food and Agriculture Code (FAC) § 82001]
      
2. Requires CDFA to promote the consistent use of the terms specified in 1) above in the course of its interactions with food manufacturers, processors, and retailers. Requires CDFA to encourage food distributors and retailers to develop alternatives to consumer-facing “sell by” dates, defined to mean a date on a label affixed to the packaging or container of food that is intended to communicate primarily to a distributor or retailer for purposes of stock rotation and that is not a quality date or a safety date. [Id.]
   
3. Defines the following terms for purposes of 1) above:
   1. “Quality date” means a date on a label affixed to the packaging or a container of food that communicates to consumers the date after which the food quality may begin to deteriorate but the food may still be acceptable for consumption.
   2. “Safety date” means a date on a label affixed to the packaging or container of food that communicates to consumers that the food should be consumed or frozen, if appropriate, by the date listed on the package that applies to perishable products with potential safety implications over time.
   3. “Sell by date” means a date on a label affixed to the packaging or container of food that is intended to communicate primarily to a distributor or retailer for purposes of stock rotation and that is not a quality date or a safety date. [Id.]
      
4. Provides that it is unlawful for an egg handler to sell, offer for sale, or expose for sale certain eggs that are packed for human consumption unless each container intended for sale to the ultimate consumer is labeled with certain information, including, among other information, the words “sell-by” immediately followed by the month and day in bold type, as specified. [FAC §27644, § 24644.5]
5. Requires repackaged eggs to be labeled with the original sell by date. [FAC § 27687]
   
6. Authorizes the Director of CDFA to enforce requirements relating to egg products [FAC § 27501-27690]
7. Establishes the Sherman Food, Drug and Cosmetics Law (Sherman Law), administered by DPH, which regulates the packaging, labeling, and advertising of food, drugs and devices, including dietary supplements. [Health & Safety Code (HSC) § 109875-111929.4]

FISCAL EFFECT: None.

COMMENTS:

1. PURPOSE OF THIS RESOLUTION. According to the author, food products often feature phrases next to dates such as “Best By,” “Expires On,” “Use By,” “Enjoy By,” “Best Before,” and “Sell By,” among countless other variations. The author states that the meaning of these phrases can be unclear to average consumers as they can indicate a product’s peak freshness, when a product is no longer safe for consumption, or, in the case of “Sell By” dates, act as a guide for when retailers should pull products from the shelf. The author continues that these phrases are often all referred to as “expiration dates”, which can lead to consumer confusion. With the exception of baby formula, date labels on packaged food are not federally regulated. The author continues that state rules can be widely inconsistent and only apply to certain product groups. This confusion ultimately leads to food being unnecessarily wasted, grocery budgets strained, and increased methane emissions from rotting food contributing to climate change. The author concludes that this resolution addresses this problem by urging the President and Congress of the United States to enact the federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023, a bipartisan piece of federal legislation which would enact uniform food date labeling standards to eliminate consumer confusion and reduce food waste.
2. BACKGROUND.
   1. Food Waste. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers and consumers. Food waste burdens waste management systems, exacerbates food insecurity and is a major contributor of climate change and pollution. Globally, the United Nations Environment Programme 2021 Food Waste Index Report estimates that 931 million tons of food waste was generated in 2019, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail. This suggests that 17% of total global food production may be wasted. The Food Waste Index Report also found that household per capita food waste generation is found to be broadly similar across country income groups, suggesting that action on food waste is equally relevant in high, upper‑middle and lower‑middle income countries. This diverges from earlier narratives concentrating consumer food waste in developed countries, and food production, storage and transportation losses in developing countries.
      
      In the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that 30 to 40% of food is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer level. Each year, Americans are discarding approximately 133 billion pounds of food worth $161 billion. In California, CDFA estimates that Californians throw away approximately 6 million tons of food waste annually. CalRecycle points out on its internet website that Californians send 11.2 billion pounds of food to landfills each year, some of which was still fresh enough to have been recovered to feed people in need.
      
      According to a 2022 study published on the Journal of Agriculture and Research entitled “Understanding and Addressing Food Waste From Confusion in Date Labeling Using a Stakeholder’s Survey”, the lack of uniformity of food date labels and lack of regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has widely lead to confusion among consumer, which is a significant contributor of food waste amounting to 20% total consumer food waste. Date labels such as “Best Before,” “Best By,” “Use By,” are highly inconsistent, are not science-based and vary widely across jurisdictions, brands, and food products. The article claims that more than 90% of Americans may be prematurely throwing food because of label misinterpretation.
   2. USDA Voluntary Quality and Safety Date Labels. With the exception of infant formula, product dating is completely voluntary. In 2016, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) updated its guidance on food product labeling, including guidance aimed at reducing food waste. FSIS at that time recommended the use of Best If Used By because research shows that this phrase is easily understood by consumers as an indicator of quality, rather than safety. Examples of commonly used date labeling are:
      1. A "Best if Used By/Before" date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date;
      2. A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date;
      3. A “Use-By" date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula as described below; and,
      4. A “Freeze-By” date indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
   3. Other States. Massachusetts has one of the strictest date labeling requirements. All packaged foods must be labeled in accordance with Massachusetts and federal labeling regulations, including all foods intended for retail sale that are manufactured in licensed residential kitchens. To comply with the Massachusetts open-dating labeling regulation, a “sell-by” or “best-if-used-by” date is required if the product has a recommended shelf life of fewer than 90 days. Foods exempt from this requirement include: fresh meat, poultry, fish, fruits, and vegetables offered for sale unpackaged or in containers permitting sensory examination, and food products pre-packaged for retail sale with a net weight of less than 1½ ounces. Foods may be sold after the open-date if the following conditions are met: It is wholesome and good quality; the product is segregated from food products that are not “past date,” and the product is clearly marked as being “past date.”
   4. Mandatory Organic Waste Collection. SB 1383 (Lara), Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016, among various provisions, establishes a target of 50% reduction in the statewide disposal of organic waste from the 2014 level by 2020 and a 75% reduction by 2025, and requires CalRecycle and the Air Resources Board to adopt regulations to achieve the organic waste reduction targets. SB 1383 also requires jurisdictions to provide organic waste collection services to all single-family and multifamily residences of all sizes and businesses that generate organic waste beginning January 1, 2022. Organic waste includes food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate, and sludges. Lastly, another provision of SB 1383 is the requirement for jurisdictions to establish food recovery programs aimed at reducing food waste and help address food insecurity.
   5. California’s Voluntary Date Labelling Efforts. In 2017, in an effort to lessen the confusion on food labelling and reduce food waste, AB 954 (Chiu), Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017, was signed into law. AB 954 required CDFA, in consultation with DPH, to publish information by July 1, 2018 that encourages food manufacturers, processors, and retailers to voluntarily use specified “best by” and “use by” labels that communicate quality and safety dates, respectively. However, this voluntary system has not mitigated the amount of food waste.
   6. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 would establish requirements for the format of quality date and discard date labels on food packaging. Specifically, the Act would require the quality date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the quality of the item may deteriorate) to include the phrase BEST If Used By or the abbreviation BB. Similarly, the Act would require the discard date on a food label (i.e., the date after which the item should not be consumed) to include the phrase USE By or the abbreviation UB. The Act would only permit abbreviations if the full phrase does not fit on the label. The Food Date Labeling Act also authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture to specify alternative phrases through regulations.
      
3. RELATED LEGISLATION.
   1. AB 660 (Irwin) of 2023 requires, on and after January 1, 2025, food manufacturers, processors, and retailers to label food products with the following quality and safety dates: “BEST if Used by” or “Best if Used or Frozen By” to indicate the quality date of a product; and/or “Use by” or “Use by or Freeze” to indicate the safety date of a product. AB 660 is pending a hearing in Senate Agriculture Committee.
   2. AB 2577 (Irwin) of 2024 requires the regulations adopted by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to meet the state’s edible food recovery goal to include product labeling requirements that reduce food waste. AB 2577 is pending a hearing in Assembly Appropriations Committee.
4. PREVIOUS LEGISLATION. AB 954 (Chiu), Chapter 787, Statutes of 2017, requires CDFA, in consultation with DPH, to publish information by July 1, 2018 that encourages food manufacturers, processors, and retailers to voluntarily use specified “best by” and “use by” labels that communicate quality and safety dates.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

350 Humboldt
350 Sacramento
Californians Against Waste
Climate Action California
Climate Reality Project, Los Angeles Chapter
Climate Reality San Fernando Valley, CA Chapter
Elders Climate Action, Norcal and Socal Chapters
Natural Resources Defense Council
Santa Cruz Climate Action Network

Opposition

None on file.

Analysis Prepared by: Eliza Brooks / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097