A hunk of cheese in your fridge is past its sell-by date. Should you throw it out? Maybe not. “There’s this misconception that food is expired when it goes past that date,” says Andrea Collins, a food waste expert at an environmental nonprofit. In reality, the sell-by date usually refers to a food’s peak freshness, so it might still be safe to eat.
To avoid this confusion, a new California law has banned the use of sell-by dates. The law instead narrows down the list of food date labels to two more straightforward options: “best if used by,” indicating a food’s peak quality, and “use by,” indicating when food is no longer safe to eat.