Sec. 402. Findings
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Congress finds the following: As of the date of enactment of this Act, date labeling practices on food packaging cause confusion with sell-by , best-by , use-by , and best before dates, leading up to 90 percent of individuals in the United States to occasionally throw out still-fresh food. Confusion over the meaning of date labels is estimated to account for 20 percent of consumer waste of safe, edible food, leading to approximately $29,000,000,000 of wasted consumer spending each year.
Consumer education and standardized date labeling are the top 2 most cost-effective strategies for reducing food waste, by economic value per ton diverted. Wasted food costs consumers and industry money, squanders important natural resources that are used to grow, process, distribute, and store the food supply of the United States, and represents a missed opportunity to feed the millions of food insecure households in the United States that are struggling to access healthy, affordable food.