By: New York Assemblymember Karines Reyes and Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Environmental Advocates NY Executive Director
New Yorkers throw out perfectly good food every day because it’s past the date on the package. Today, as World Food Day reminds us that one in seven New Yorkers are food-insecure, making impossible choices between buying groceries for their family or paying their bills, it’s time for Governor Hochul to take a simple action that will make a big difference: sign the Food Date Labeling Act (FDLA) to help ensure that safe and healthy food isn’t turned into garbage, and instead will go to the families that need it most.
How? The FDLA requires, but does not mandate, businesses that print dates on their products to use one of two simple terms: “Best if Used by” or “Use by.” A “Best if Used by” date will only relate to food flavor and quality—food consumed after this date is still perfectly fine to eat; it just might not taste as fresh as when first sold—and a “Use by” date will indicate when the food should be discarded for safety.
We shouldn’t have to spend so much time sorting through the fridge and pantry, squinting at small, sometimes blurry labels that say “sell by,” “best by,” “consume by,” “expires on,” and other phrases, none of them regulated, to figure out what is safe to eat. Food labeling has become so inconsistent that every family regularly throws out good food often still at its peak of flavor.
Families dealing with the biggest jump in grocery prices in decades will benefit, too. The food we buy often ends up in the trash because we don’t want to risk our health and safety based on dates whose meaning is unclear. That waste adds up, costing families across New York and the country billions of dollars every year, amassing millions of tons of garbage our cities and towns pay to dispose of, and emitting thousands of metric tons of carbon emissions into the air we breathe.
The problem even extends to food banks. Hard-working food bank staff and volunteers spend their time processing the many donations they receive from families and businesses looking to help their neighbors in need, and assembling them into packages and meal kits. Time spent looking at date labels, trying to decide what to keep and what to discard, could be spent packaging more food for our community members.
The FDLA, passed by both chambers of the New York legislature with broad support, would toss out this confusing, unregulated alphabet soup of expiration language and replace it with a uniform standard that only uses two labels.
It seems like a small, simple change. But its impact will be enormous.
The FDLA is a food waste management, consumer protection, and household spending remedy wrapped into one bill. Backed by public health advocates, anti-hunger organizations, and lawmakers across the state, this legislation is a uniquely low-lift solution that packs a high-impact fix.
Governor Hochul has been a champion for our neighbors facing food insecurity, providing $65 million in funds to the emergency food system last year when SNAP benefits lapsed due to the federal government shutdown. Now, she has an opportunity to expand on her commitments and affordability agenda by signing the FDLA into law.
The FDLA is a win for food banks, hungry families, community-minded New Yorkers donating excess food, and everyone who’s managing a tight grocery budget. Implementing this bill costs us nothing, while saving us a great deal of food, money, and time, and Governor Hochul should make it law.