SENATE BILL: FOOD LABEL DATES HARMONIZATION ACT (Passed)

[Mr. Reactionary]

I've been thinking about this bill more and I think I have 1 or 2 minor tweaks I didn't think of at the time if the sponsor is agreeing. This bill is a shaved down version of one introduced by Sen. Blumenthal, but I saw other proposals.

I was thinking about the sell by dates on milk. Anyone who buys milk and doesnt drink it in a week or so knows that the sell by date is not determination of fresh milk. The date confuses a lot of folks because they think its an expiration date ... but to milk processors and vendors those dates do have purpose. I'm blanking on the sponsor, but I saw another federal bill that proposed sell by dates by printed in invisible ink that can be seen with a UV flashlight. That way the milk processors get the benefit of the date, but consumers wont get confused by them.

Additionally, I forgot about freezing as an alternative to expiration, so the second proposed amendment would allow for that language.

SENATE BILL

To reform and improve the system of dating food products

Be it enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,

FOOD LABEL DATES HARMONIZATION ACT

SECTION I: NAME.
a. This act shall be known as the Food Label Dates Harmonization Act

SECTION II: FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
a. 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 Atlasia to occasionally throw out still-fresh food.
b. 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.
c. Wasted food costs consumers and industry money, squanders important natural resources that are used to grow, process, distribute, and store the food supply of Atlasia, and represents a missed opportunity to feed the millions of food insecure households in Atlasia that are struggling to access healthy, affordable food.

SECTION III: DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
a. The term “food labeler” means the producer, manufacturer, distributor, or retailer that places a date label on food packaging of a product.
b. The term “quality date” means a date voluntarily printed on food packaging that is intended to communicate to consumers the date after which the quality of the product may begin to deteriorate, but may still be acceptable for consumption.
c. The term “ready-to-eat product” means—
(A), a product that—
(i) is in a form that is edible without additional preparation to achieve food safety and may receive additional preparation for palatability or aesthetic, epicurean, gastronomic, or culinary purposes; and
(ii) is—
(I) a poultry product, as defined in section 4 of the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 453);
(II) a meat food product, as defined in section 1 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601); or
(III) an egg product, as defined in section 4 of the Egg Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1033); or
(iii) a food that is normally eaten in its raw state; or
(iv) any other food, including a processed food, for which it is reasonably foreseeable that the food will be eaten without further processing that would significantly minimize biological hazards.
d. The term “safety date” means a date printed on food packaging of a ready-to-eat product, which signifies the end of the estimated period of shelf life under any stated storage conditions, after which the product may pose a health safety risk.
e. The term “SOIA” means Secretary of Internal Affairs

SECTION IV: QUALITY DATES AND SAFETY DATES.
a. If a food labeler includes a quality date on food packaging, the label shall use the uniform quality date label phrase “best if used by”.
b. The decision to include a quality date on food packaging shall be at the discretion of the food labeler.
c. A food labeler may include a date on food packaging intended solely for food labelers or vendors, provided the date is printed in ink only visible under ultraviolet-light or within the data of a barcode.

SECTION V: SAFETY DATES.
a.  The label of a ready-to-eat product shall include a safety date that is immediately preceded by the uniform safety date label phrase “expires on” or "Expires unless frozen on" where applicable, if the ready-to-eat product meets the criteria as defined herein.
b. The SOIA shall describe criteria that determine what ready-to-eat products may have a high level of risk associated with consumption after a certain date, including those that may be high or very high risk for Listeria monocytogenes or other contaminants or pathogens causing foodborne illness.
c. The SOIA may: (i) list additional ready-to-eat products that are high risk, but do not meet the criteria described in subparagraph (A); or (ii) exempt specific ready-to-eat products that meet the criteria described in subparagraph (A), but do not actually pose a high level of risk associated with consumption after a certain date.

SECTION VI: QUALITY DATE AND SAFETY DATE LABELING.
a. The quality date and safety date, as applicable, and immediately adjacent uniform quality date label phrase or safety date label phrase shall be located in a conspicuous place on the package of the food.
b. Each quality date and safety date shall be stated in terms of day and month and, as appropriate, year.
c. No one shall prohibit the sale, donation, or use of any product after the quality date for the product has passed.
d. 21 U.S.C. 343 , 21 U.S.C. 453(h), 21 U.S.C. 601(n), 21 U.S.C. 1036(b) shall all be amended accordingly.

SECTION VII: TIMING
a. This act shall take effect July 4, 2021.