California AB 660 Date Labeling Law: Retailer Guide

The date labeling chaos is finally getting a legislative answer, and California is writing it

If you have been in the grocery business for more than about ten minutes, you know the date labeling situation in the United States is, to use the technical term, a mess. Manufacturers stamp "Best By," "Use By," "Sell By," "Best Before," "Enjoy By," "Freshest Before," and approximately forty-seven other variations on food packaging, none of which mean the same thing, most of which consumers interpret identically (as "this food will kill you after this date"), and almost none of which are regulated at the federal level. The result is a system that manages to simultaneously confuse consumers, create inconsistent legal exposure for retailers across state lines, and generate roughly $218 billion in annual food waste. This is not a minor operational nuisance. This is a structural failure in how America communicates food safety information.

California Assembly Bill 660 is the most significant attempt by any state to fix this, and if you sell food in California -- or if you sell food anywhere in the United States and want to understand where the regulatory landscape is heading -- you need to understand what it requires, when it takes effect, and what you have to change in your operations before July 1, 2026.

That date is not far away. It is months away. If you are reading this and have not started your compliance work, you are behind, but you are not yet in trouble. Let me walk you through what this law actually says, what it means for your store, and what you need to do about it.

What AB 660 actually requires

AB 660 does something that sounds deceptively simple but is, in practice, a significant operational shift: it standardizes date labeling terminology for food products sold in California to exactly two phrases.

"BEST if Used By" -- this is for quality. It communicates to the consumer that the manufacturer believes the product will be at peak quality until this date. After the date, the product may taste slightly different, have a different texture, or be less than optimal in some sensory way. It does not mean the food is unsafe. It does not mean the food is spoiled. It means the manufacturer's quality guarantee, such as it is, extends to this point.

"USE By" -- this is for safety. It appears on products where consumption after the date could pose a health risk due to microbial growth or other food safety concerns. This is the date that actually matters from a public health perspective, and it is the only date after which California will restrict sale.

That is it. Two phrases. No more "Sell By." No more "Best Before." No more "Freshest By." No more "Enjoy By January 2027." Two standardized labels, one for quality and one for safety, each communicating a distinct and clearly differentiated message to consumers.

The law prohibits the use of any other date label language on food products sold in California after the effective date. If your product says "Sell By," it is non-compliant. If it says "Best Before" instead of "BEST if Used By," it is non-compliant. The standardization is the point.

The critical distinction: what happens after each date

Here is where the operational impact hits retailers directly:

• After the "BEST if Used By" date: The product can still be legally sold. California does not prohibit the sale of food past its quality date. You can sell it, donate it, mark it down, or leave it on the shelf. The consumer is informed that peak quality has passed, but the food is still safe.

• After the "USE By" date: The product cannot be sold. This is the hard stop. Products bearing a "USE By" date cannot be sold, donated for human consumption, or offered to consumers after that date has passed.

This distinction is the single most important thing in the law for retailers, because it means your pull-and-markdown procedures need to differentiate between these two categories in a way that most stores currently do not. Right now, most grocery operations treat all date labels the same way: pull the product before or on the date, mark it down if there is time, discard it if there is not. AB 660 creates a bifurcated system where quality-dated products have a longer sellable life and safety-dated products have a hard cutoff.

Which products are affected

AB 660 applies to virtually all packaged food products sold at retail in California. The scope is broad by design, because the point is to eliminate the inconsistency of the current labeling patchwork, not to carve out categories and preserve the status quo.

Products that will typically carry the "USE By" (safety) date include:

Products that will typically carry the "BEST if Used By" (quality) date include:

The manufacturer determines which label applies based on their product's safety profile. The law does not prescribe which products get which label -- it prescribes the language used and the legal consequences that follow from each.

What retailers must change before July 1, 2026

Let me be direct about the operational changes. This is not a "wait and see" law. This is a "change your processes or face enforcement" law.

1. Audit every product on your shelves for label compliance

Starting July 1, 2026, every food product on your shelves in California needs to carry one of the two standardized date labels. Products with non-compliant labeling -- "Sell By," "Best Before," "Freshest By," or any other variation -- cannot be on your shelves.

The practical reality: Most of this burden falls on manufacturers and distributors, who need to update their packaging. But the enforcement falls on you, the retailer. If a non-compliant product is on your shelf after July 1, you are the one the inspector sees. You need to communicate with your suppliers now -- not in June -- about their label transition timelines. Some manufacturers will transition early. Some will be shipping non-compliant packaging well into 2026 because they are working through existing label stock. You need to know which suppliers fall into which category.

2. Rebuild your pull and markdown schedules

Under the current system, most stores use a single set of rules: pull products X days before the printed date, mark down Y days before that. AB 660 requires you to think in two tracks.

For "BEST if Used By" products: You can now legally keep these on shelves past the printed date. Whether you should is a business decision, not a legal one. Some retailers will choose to sell past-quality-date products at a markdown, which is now explicitly legal and clearly communicated to consumers. Others will continue pulling at or before the date for brand perception reasons. Either approach is compliant.

For "USE By" products: These must be off your shelves by the date. No exceptions. No markdowns past the date. No "it still looks fine." The date is the hard stop, and your processes need to guarantee zero products with a passed USE By date are available for sale.

This means your inventory management system needs to distinguish between these two label types at the product level. If your system currently treats all dates identically, it needs to be updated.

3. Retrain every employee who touches product

Your receiving staff needs to check for compliant labeling on incoming product. Your stocking staff needs to understand the difference between the two date types and apply different rotation rules. Your department managers need to implement category-specific pull schedules. Your front-end staff needs to handle the customer who says "this is past its date" differently depending on whether it is a quality date or a safety date.

This is not a one-hour training session. This is a fundamental change in how your team thinks about dates, and the muscle memory your experienced staff has built over years of treating all dates the same will fight you. Build training time into your Q2 2026 schedule.

4. Update your donation program

If you have a food donation program -- and you should, because the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects you from liability and the tax benefits under IRS Section 170(e)(3) are substantial -- you need to adjust your donation criteria.

"BEST if Used By" products can be donated after the quality date. This is explicitly supported under AB 660 and aligned with California's broader food waste reduction goals. Your food bank partners will accept these products because they are safe, and you get the enhanced tax deduction.

"USE By" products cannot be donated for human consumption after the safety date. They can potentially be redirected to animal feed or composting, but not to food banks for human distribution.

This is actually good news for donation programs, because a significant amount of food that was previously pulled and discarded under the confusing "Sell By" regime can now be clearly identified as quality-dated and redirected to donation channels instead of the dumpster.

Penalties for non-compliance

California's enforcement framework for AB 660 operates through the state's existing food safety enforcement infrastructure. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and county health departments will enforce the labeling requirements during routine inspections.

Violations are treated as misbranding under California's Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. The penalty structure includes:

• First violations: Typically a warning or notice of violation, with a compliance timeline
• Repeated violations: Civil penalties that can reach up to $10,000 per violation for willful or repeated non-compliance
• Selling past a "USE By" date: This is treated more seriously than labeling format violations, because it directly implicates food safety

The enforcement philosophy is likely to be education-first in the initial months after the July 2026 effective date, similar to how California phased in enforcement of SB 1383's organic waste requirements. But "education-first" does not mean "no enforcement." It means the first offense gets a conversation. The second one gets a citation.

For retailers operating multiple locations, note that violations are per-location and per-inspection. A chain with 50 California locations that has not updated its processes could face enforcement actions at every single store.

How AB 660 connects to California's SB 1383 food waste reduction goals

AB 660 did not emerge in a vacuum. It is part of California's broader legislative strategy to reduce food waste, anchored by SB 1383, the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Act, which set a statewide target of reducing organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025 and recovering 20% of currently disposed surplus food for human consumption by 2025.

California generates approximately 6 million tons of food waste annually. Date label confusion is a documented contributor to that waste -- ReFED estimates that standardizing date labels nationally could divert 398,000 tons of food waste per year, and California's share of that diversion is significant given the state's population and food production volume.

The logic chain is straightforward:

• Confusing date labels cause consumers and retailers to discard safe food prematurely
• Standardized labels reduce confusion and premature discarding
• Reduced premature discarding means less food in landfills and more food available for donation
• Less food in landfills means less methane emissions from organic waste decomposition
• More food available for donation means progress toward the 20% recovery target

AB 660 is the labeling reform that makes SB 1383's diversion targets achievable. Without clear labeling, consumers and retailers will continue discarding safe food because they cannot distinguish quality signals from safety signals. With standardized labels, the decision framework becomes simple enough to actually work at scale.

For retailers, this connection matters because SB 1383 already imposes organic waste diversion requirements on businesses generating specified volumes of waste. If you are a grocery store in California, you are almost certainly subject to SB 1383's requirements, which means you already need composting or donation programs for food waste. AB 660 makes the donation pathway more viable by clarifying which food is safe to donate, which directly helps your SB 1383 compliance.

Why this matters nationally -- California sets the standard

If you are reading this from Texas or Ohio or Florida and thinking "this doesn't apply to me," I would encourage you to think harder about that. California has a documented history of setting regulatory standards that become the de facto national standard, for the simple reason that manufacturers and retailers do not want to maintain separate processes for California and everywhere else.

Consider the pattern:

• Proposition 65 (chemical warning labels): Manufacturers now put Prop 65 warnings on products sold nationwide rather than maintaining separate California and non-California packaging lines
• CCPA/CPRA (data privacy): California's privacy law influenced privacy practices across all 50 states and contributed to federal privacy discussion
• Vehicle emissions standards: California's stricter emissions standards have historically pulled national standards upward

AB 660 follows the same logic. Once major food manufacturers retool their packaging for California compliance, many of them will adopt the standardized "BEST if Used By" / "USE By" format nationally rather than maintaining dual labeling. This is already the direction the FDA has been encouraging -- the FDA issued guidance in 2019 recommending (but not requiring) that manufacturers adopt "Best if Used By" as a standard quality label, and AB 660 essentially makes that recommendation mandatory in the nation's largest state market.

Several other states are watching California's implementation closely. Oregon, Washington, and New York have all had draft legislation or committee discussions about date label standardization. The Federal Food Date Labeling Act has been introduced in Congress multiple sessions in a row, proposing essentially the same two-label system at the national level. It has not passed, because Congress has difficulty passing things, but the direction of travel is clear.

If you are a multi-state retailer: Building your systems around the AB 660 framework now positions you for compliance with whatever comes next, whether that is other states adopting similar laws or an eventual federal standard. This is not a California-only investment.

Your AB 660 compliance checklist

Here is a practical, action-oriented checklist for retailers preparing for the July 1, 2026 effective date. I would suggest working through this in order, starting now.

Q1 2026 (January - March): Assessment and planning

• Inventory audit: Catalog every product category you carry and identify which currently use non-compliant date language ("Sell By," "Best Before," etc.)
• Supplier communication: Contact every supplier and distributor and request their AB 660 transition timeline. Document which suppliers will have compliant packaging by July 1 and which will not
• System assessment: Determine whether your inventory management system can distinguish between "BEST if Used By" (quality) and "USE By" (safety) products and apply different rules to each
• Policy development: Draft new pull, markdown, and donation policies that reflect the two-track system
• Legal review: Have your compliance team or counsel review your current practices against AB 660 requirements

Q2 2026 (April - June): Implementation

• Staff training: Roll out training for all employees who handle product -- receiving, stocking, department management, front-end, customer service
• System configuration: Configure your inventory management system to track quality-dated and safety-dated products separately, with appropriate alerts and pull schedules for each
• Supplier follow-up: Confirm with suppliers that compliant packaging will be in use by the effective date. For any suppliers who will not be compliant, develop a plan (stop ordering, find alternatives, request special California-compliant runs)
• Donation program update: Coordinate with food bank partners on updated donation criteria. Communicate that quality-dated products past their BEST if Used By date will now be available for donation in greater quantities
• Signage and customer communication: Consider in-store educational signage explaining the new date labels to customers. This reduces customer complaints and positions your store as a knowledgeable, trustworthy source

July 2026: Go-live

• Compliance verification: Walk every aisle. Every product on the shelf should carry either "BEST if Used By" or "USE By" in the standardized format. Pull any non-compliant products
• Process monitoring: For the first 30 days, conduct daily checks of pull compliance, particularly for USE By products. Establish that the new processes are working before reducing check frequency
• Incident response: Have a plan for what happens when a USE By product is found on the shelf past its date. Who gets notified? What is the documentation process? How do you prevent recurrence?
• Customer feedback tracking: Monitor customer questions and complaints about the new labels. Use the feedback to refine staff training and in-store communication

Ongoing

• New product onboarding: Every new product added to your assortment should be checked for label compliance before it hits the shelf
• Supplier accountability: Include AB 660 compliance requirements in your vendor agreements
• Waste tracking: Monitor whether the clear quality/safety distinction is actually reducing waste as intended. Track donation volumes separately from discards
• Regulatory updates: Watch for enforcement guidance from CDFA and your county health department, particularly in the first year when interpretation questions will be common

How inventory tracking software makes this manageable

I will be direct: managing AB 660 compliance manually -- with clipboards, spreadsheets, or the memory of your most experienced department manager -- is theoretically possible but practically unreliable. The law creates a system where the consequences of mixing up a quality date and a safety date are real (selling past a USE By date is a violation; selling past a BEST if Used By date is fine), and human memory is not a reliable enforcement mechanism for thousands of SKUs across multiple departments.

This is where batch-level expiry tracking systems earn their keep. A system that tracks every product's expiry date, categorizes it by date type (quality vs. safety), and generates automated alerts when action is required takes the compliance burden off your staff's memory and puts it into a reliable, auditable process.

Specifically, you need a system that can:

• Differentiate between date types at the product level, so a yogurt (USE By, hard stop) and a box of crackers (BEST if Used By, flexible) trigger different workflows
• Generate pull alerts with different lead times for quality-dated vs. safety-dated products
• Track markdown decisions for quality-dated products that you choose to sell past the BEST if Used By date
• Document donation eligibility for products redirected to food banks instead of dumpsters
• Produce compliance reports showing that USE By products were removed from sale before their dates, which is exactly the documentation an inspector wants to see

The investment in a proper expiry tracking system pays for itself not just in AB 660 compliance but in the waste reduction and donation optimization that the law is designed to encourage. When you can see, at a glance, which products are approaching their quality dates and route them to markdowns or donations instead of the trash, you are recovering value that was previously being discarded.

The bottom line

California AB 660 is not a minor labeling tweak. It is a structural reform that changes the legal framework around date labels for the largest consumer market in the United States, and it takes effect in a matter of months. The retailers who prepare now will transition smoothly, reduce waste, recover value from products they previously discarded, strengthen their donation programs, and position themselves for the national standard that is clearly coming.

The retailers who do not prepare will be scrambling in July, pulling non-compliant products from shelves, retraining staff under time pressure, and hoping that their first inspection lands on a day when everything happens to be in order.

The choice is straightforward. The timeline is not generous. Start now.

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