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.”
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