The “Sell By” date that many grocery products have attached to them will now be removed.
Well, the label will no longer exist as it will be replaced with “BEST If Used By” and “USE By”. The move is part of an initiative being launched by Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), two agencies that govern food products in the U.S.
The reason behind such a move revolves around the fact that many of these labels are misleading. The “Sell By” label, as well as the “best before” tag attached to certain foods make it sound like the product will go bad if it is not sold by a particular day.
However, what the labels are really saying is that you should buy these products before a certain date to ensure it is of the highest quality, and to ensure it tastes like it was supposed to taste at an optimal level.
Beyond that date, the products will not necessarily go bad. In fact, they will still be edible for a certain period of time, but the taste might be slightly different due to how much time has elapsed since the product was put on a grocery store’s shelves.
The move will help avoid food waste, and the agencies hope that all grocers will adopt the practice by summer 2018 or sooner.
