For years, people have been left dumbfounded by the plethora of food label dates carried by grocery stores. The dizzying array of over 50 date-related terms—such as “sell by,” “best before,” and “enjoy by”—creates massive confusion, resulting in billions of pounds of perfectly edible food being needlessly thrown away each year. In fact, nearly 10% of all wasted food in the United States is due to confusion over how to interpret these labels.

California’s new Assembly Bill 660, which goes into effect July 1, aims to address this issue.

A simpler system for shoppers

Shoppers will only have two labels to contend with: “BEST if Used By,” which refers to peak product quality (think freshness), and “USE By,” which........

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