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California bans sell-by dates

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Re: California bans sell-by dates

#121

Post by moate »

sandworm101 wrote: post #118
ryukoposting wrote: post #100

When my wife and I moved in together, we had a spat about what "sell by" dates actually meant. She had been throwing away loads of perfectly good food because she misunderstood the meaning of the sell-by date. I don't remember who taught me what they actually mean, but I was able to point her to a USDA site that showed the actual meaning. I'm pretty sure that was the only time I have ever been right when she and I di…

There is also much confusion about how food actually goes bad. There are some foods that absolutely should be avoided after a specific amount of time. But most will go bad somewhat randomly, mostly after but often before their sell/best by dates. Sometimes a jug of milk will be bad before it even arrives at a store. Sometimes mold will appear on fresh bread very suddenly. Food is more complicated than fixed dates. I…

I think as a general rule, biology loathes blunt instruments. That's not to say these things aren't more useful than just guessing, but as this legislation (or rather the underlying issue that led to its passing) shows is that a lot of this stuff is very poorly understood.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#122

Post by tiffanyh »

Montana uses Sell-By dates to artificially ban out-of-state milk.

They want to promote in-state business (dairy farmers).

Montana purposefully has short Sell-by diary dates, because it makes it prohibitive for an out-of-state dairy to transport their milk into Montana.

https://www.nrdc.org/bio/dana-gunders/how-montanas-sell-date...

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#123

Post by jjice »

torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

> But why beer??? Legit question--I don't drink so maybe it's obvious and I'm just a knucklehead.

Very fair question. Anecdotally, when I was just graduating university I drank a few 4+ year past expiration macro-brewed beers that were sitting in the fridge that entire time. The results were not good compared to similar consumption of non-expired beer.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#125

Post by lupusreal »

guelo wrote: post #101
hentrep wrote: post #52

Here’s the actual USDA article describing the difference between “sell by, “use by”, and “best by” terms: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-... I don’t have time to find a source that supports this, but I understand that these dates also refer to the durability of the “food safe” container/packaging. Ever drink water from an unopened plastic bottle that has been stored for awhile? That taste…

Those cheap plastic water bottles should be banned. They’re one of the greatest sources of micro plastics in our bodies. (Not to mention unstudied nano plastics)

They can't be anywhere even close to synthetic textiles.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#127

Post by moate »

fmbb wrote: post #102
torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

American eggs are incredibly sensitive due to the chlorine washing they go through before making it to the store. Not oddly specific. Here in Sweden (and I assume the rest of the EU) when I buy eggs they are not refrigerated and I keep them in the pantry at room temp for weeks or months without issues. The price I pay is that they sometimes come with a little bird poop on them from the store.

(Most of) Europe doesn't wash their eggs, allowing them to be stored at room temperature, but as you said, the standard for physical contamination is lower.

The US washes our eggs, requiring refrigeration but greatly extending shelf life and greatly reducing physical contamination.

Advantages to both (Europe wins hands down if you need to whip egg whites to stiff peaks) but very interesting how the two regions addressed the safety issues around this.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#128

Post by tivert »

torgoguys wrote: post #67

> To adhere with the requisite language outlined, any food products with a date label — with the exception of infant formula, eggs, beer, and malt beverages — must state “Best if Used By” to indicate peak quality, and “Use By” to designate food safety. Infant formula is required federally, so OK. Eggs are an oddly specific one, but I guess I can see it (although I'd wonder why some other products like milk, or meat m…

> But why beer??? Legit question--I don't drink so maybe it's obvious and I'm just a knucklehead.

Maybe a different regulatory regime applies? That's the case at the federal level. For instance: alcohol often doesn't have the typical food labels because it's regulated by the ATF [1] not the FDA, and food labels are an FDA thing:

https://www.ttb.gov/regulated-commodities/beverage-alcohol/w...:

> TTB regulations do not require nutrient content labeling for alcohol beverages.

https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-food-labeling-and-critica...:

> Food labeling is required for most prepared foods, such as breads, cereals, canned and frozen foods, snacks, desserts, drinks, etc. Nutrition labeling for raw produce (fruits and vegetables) and fish is voluntary.

[1] apparently now split into the ATF and TTB

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#129

Post by spease »

devonbleak wrote: post #126
gandalfian wrote: post #120

This sounds perfectly sensible and uncontroversial?

From a consumer standpoint, yes. From a company-who-abuses-best-by-dates-to-sell-more-product standpoint it's very controversial.

They would already just put “best by” on the product, so it’s not making things any worse that I can see.

Re: California bans sell-by dates

#130

Post by bigstrat2003 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #100

When my wife and I moved in together, we had a spat about what "sell by" dates actually meant. She had been throwing away loads of perfectly good food because she misunderstood the meaning of the sell-by date. I don't remember who taught me what they actually mean, but I was able to point her to a USDA site that showed the actual meaning. I'm pretty sure that was the only time I have ever been right when she and I di…

My wife does the same thing, and I've been unable to convince her. Not talking perishable stuff, either - she'll throw out something like a bottle of hot sauce because it is a few months past the "best by" date. No matter how much I try to tell her that these things are shelf stable and will be good for even a year or more after the date, she doesn't believe me.

I think that the show Kim's Convenience said it perfectly, myself. "See this date? It say 'best by'. After date - not best, but still pretty good."

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