Keep it or toss it? Date label confusion causing people to waste ‘perfectly good food,’ expert says

By Rachel Keller and Bob Dumas. Originally published on May 7, 2025 in Boston 25 News

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Buying groceries takes a big bite — a really big bite — out of a family’s budget today.

What’s worse is that Americans throw away more than a third of the food they buy, according to the federal government.

Much of that can be attributed to confusion with food date labels that indicate when to best use a product.

There are many versions of all kinds of products today.

For example, a bottle of salad dressing indicates it’s “best by” next December.

Hummus is marked to “sell by” a specific day in May.

A package of shredded cheese says it’s “best if used by” August.

This type of information is meant to clarify quality, but it ends up confusing many consumers.

Emily Broad Leib, a professor at Harvard Law School and director of their Food Law and Policy Clinic, isn’t surprised this is happening.

“Walmart, a couple of years ago, did a study of the different labels used on their private label products, and they found that there were 47 different date labels being used.”