On 28 September 2024, the State of California, USA, announced that a bill to uniform food expiry date labelling had been signed. Until now, the state has allowed for the use of “Sell by”, “Best by/before”, ‘Expired by’ as well as other recommended labelling methods such as “Best if Used By” and “Use By”, when displaying expiry dates, but from 1 July 2026, uniform labelings such as “Best if Used By”, “Best by/before”, “Expired by” will become mandatory. Such uniform labelling is said to help ensure a sustainable future by reducing the likelihood of confusion over quality and safety, whereas the various expiry date labels have been confusing for consumers and have led to unnecessary food waste.

In the US, there are no federal regulations on food expiry date labelling, except for infant formula, and consequently a legislation was proposed in May 2023 for the Food Date Labeling Act, which also aims to uniform on “Best If Used By”, “USE By” and so on to prevent consumer confusion and help solve the problem of food waste.

The relationship between expiration date labels and food waste has been an issue in many countries, with the EU estimating that up to 10% of food waste may be related to a lack of understanding of expiration date labels, and a revision of the Regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (FIC Regulation (EU) 1169/2011) is planned. Improvements are being considered in terms of terminology, format and visual presentation to avoid consumer misunderstanding the “use by” and “best before” labelling methods.

In April 2024, the Food Standards Agency of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) released its “2023 CONSUMER INSIGHTS,” and the following information is a good illustration of the current situation of food waste that is past its expiration date.

“Most people correctly understood best before and use-by dates, but up to a third expressed an incorrect understanding.”

“Among people with a correct understanding of date marking, up to a third reported behavior inconsistent with their understanding.”

In Japan, a ‘Study Group to Review Guidelines for Setting Food Expiry Dates’ has been convened since May 2024, and in addition to reviewing the setting of expiry date labels, it is also considering the “handling of food that has reached its best before date and can still be eaten”. The revised guidelines are due to be published in March 2025.

The above is a brief summary of the current situation in each country regarding expiration date labeling, which may be a trigger for food waste. In practice, especially when exporting food products to Japan or another country, it is necessary to review local labeling methods about expiry date labeling. By deepening our understanding that time limit labeling is related to the problem of food waste as a background, we believe that it will be easier to respond and prepare for future labeling creation.

Supplement

The expiration date labeling, which is often printed at the time of manufacture, is a labeling item that is prone to error when importing or exporting due to differences in labeling methods between countries. (In particular, the order in which expiration dates are printed is confusing, as some countries use “day-month-year” or “month-day-year,” while Japan uses “year-month-date”). In the design stage of labeling, it is recommended that the space for the expiration date not be left blank, but that the difference be easily recognized in advance by writing “YYYYY.MM.DD”, “DD.MM.YYYYY”, “MM.DD.YYYYY”, and so on.

Hiroyuki Kawai

Label bank Co., Ltd. CEO (Founder)
Born in Japan. Working on solving various issues related to food labeling operations. Also regularly gives lectures for various organizations in Japan.
Co-author of ‘Latest edition: Guide book Food Labeling Law and related business practical points – from scratch (Japanese version only)’ (DAI-ICHI HOKI CO., LTD/2019).