By Garrett Zhou

Imagine you’re going through your fridge, and you see an item that you forgot you bought. It’s a sauce you’ve been wanting to try for a chicken wing recipe. You pick up the item to see if it’s still usable. It states, “Best if used by September 6, 2025.” You check your phone. It’s September 8. Ughhh. 2 days off. You toss it in the trash. Big mistake. Here’s why. 

According to CSPI, the label “Best if used by” indicates the date when there is a possibility of a decline in quality. Keep in mind that this decline is not a guarantee. It’s mainly used to keep the company that makes the product and the supermarket non-liable for any quality-based lawsuits. They reminded you when the quality could deteriorate, so you don’t have a legal basis to sue them. It’s perfectly fine to keep using the product once it hits this date, especially if you are stretched financially. However, if you don’t want to use it, donate it to a food bank. They would be happy to take any product you have. If you haven’t already, check out my blog post on My Experience Volunteering at a Food Bank, linked here. 

The expiration date listed on the product is when it is considered unsafe to consume. However, companies want to avoid legal action against them, so this date is for worst-case scenarios. Still, I would not recommend consuming expired products. However, I would recommend sending them to the nearest food bank or pantry. With my experience volunteering at food banks, they’ll use any food from 1 month expired to over a year expired, depending on the product type. According to Divert, about 40% of households have never donated any food or money to a food bank, and that number is rising. 

For many people, donating to a food bank is very tedious and time-consuming. That’s why there’s another way to fix the issue: checking the dates in the store and helping spread the message about the common misunderstandings about date labels. In many stores, there’s a date label named “sell by.” If a product has already passed this date, most consumers will not buy the product. In fact, if this date has passed, consumers are 88% more likely to throw out the item(CSPI 2025). 

Knowing about date labels is key. In fact, consumers waste over 3 billion pounds of food due to label confusion(CSPI 2025). ReFED estimates that with a federally standardized date label reform, over $29 billion could be saved annually within the US food system. Over half of Americans wrongly believe that date labels are federally regulated. Most throw away food past date labels. This needs to stop. Spread the message. It saves money and food, as well as the resources invested into those foods.

As always, thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Bibliography

“Confusion over Food Date Labels Has Grown, According to New National Survey.” ReFED, Feb. 2025, refed.org/articles/confusion-over-food-date-labels-has-grown-according-to-new-national-survey/.com. Accessed 6 Sept. 2025.

“Food Waste Impacts Date Labeling.” ReFED, refed.org/food-waste/date-labeling/.com. Accessed 6 Sept. 2025.

“Divert Survey Reveals 20% Fewer Consumers Donating This Holiday Season.” Divert, 16 Nov. 2023, divertinc.com/divert-survey-reveals-20-fewer-consumers-donating-this-holiday-season/.com. Accessed 6 Sept. 2025.

Ribakove, Sara. “Date labels and food waste: Here’s what to know.” Center for Science in the Public Interest, 28 Feb. 2025, http://www.cspi.org/cspi-news/date-labels-and-food-waste-heres-what-know/.com. Accessed 6 Sept. 2025.