Food Date Labeling Act of 2025
Official title: To establish requirements for quality and discard date phrases that are voluntarily declared on the food label to display calendar dates.
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture.
Food Date Labeling Act of 2025
This bill establishes uniform requirements for quality and discard date phrases (e.g., best by and use by) placed voluntarily on food labels.
Specifically, if a food is labeled with a quality date (i.e., the date after which the quality of the item may deteriorate), the label must include the phrase BEST If Used By or the abbreviation BB. Similarly, if a food is labeled with a discard date (i.e., the date after which the item should not be consumed), the label must include the phrase USE By or the abbreviation UB. Abbreviations may be used only if an item’s packaging is too small to fit the full phrase.
Quality and discard dates must be written in a single, easy-to-read font and placed in a prominent location on an item’s label or package. The phrase or freeze by may be added after a quality or discard date phrase where appropriate.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) must promulgate regulations to carry out these provisions and ensure that the uniform phrases are standardized across all food products. HHS and USDA may specify alternative quality and discard date phrases through regulations.
The bill specifies that no state or local government may enforce a requirement related to quality and discard date phrases that differs from the requirements of the bill. The bill does not apply to infant formula, which is subject to separate labeling requirements under current law.
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- FOOD MARKETPLACE INC.
- THE SMITH-FREE GROUP, LLC
- WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, INC.
- UNILEVER UNITED STATES, INC.
- WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, INC.
- FOOD MARKETPLACE INC.
Bodies those filers lobbied
- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
- SENATE
- Agriculture, Dept of (USDA)
- Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Labor, Dept of (DOL)
- Natl Economic Council (NEC)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 4987: Food Date Labeling Act of 2025. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-4987/
"H.R. 4987: Food Date Labeling Act of 2025." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-4987/.
H.R. 4987, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-4987/.
[H.R. 4987: Food Date Labeling Act of 2025](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-HR-4987/)