The legal trigger is Assembly Bill 660, which requires California retailers to standardize food date label language by July 1, 2026. The bill draws a clear definitional line: "Sell By," as the statute states, is a date "intended to communicate primarily to a distributor or retailer for purposes of stock rotation" and is "not a quality date or a safety date," AOL reports. A back-of-house inventory tool, in other words, that ended up printed on consumer packaging.

Shoppers could have been misreading "Sell By" as a freshness or safety cutoff and discarding food that was still safe to eat, AOL notes. AB 660 closes that gap by replacing the label with two terms that are actually meant for the person buying the product.

Rather than maintain separate labeling systems for California and everywhere else, Trader Joe's is rolling out the new standard across all stores immediately. Per the bulletin AOL reviewed, the national rollout is intended to keep customer and crew communication clear and consistent. California's compliance deadline is July 1, 2026, but the grocer isn't waiting for it.

AB 660 replaces "Sell By" with two labels designed to mean something to the person buying the food, not the distributor delivering it.

"Best If Used By" (abbreviated "BB") signals when a product is expected to be at peak flavor or quality. Per the bulletin AOL reviewed, this label covers the widest range of products: shelf-stable pantry items, frozen foods, bread and bakery goods, processed produce, ready-to-eat refrigerated products, and health and beauty items with drug facts panels. It marks a quality window, not a hard expiration date.

"Use By" (abbreviated "UB") is narrower in scope. The leaked bulletin describes it as the last date the producer can guarantee best quality, and it will appear on ready-to-eat refrigerated vacuum-sealed seafood and similar refrigerated products, AOL reports. The sourcing here carries an unresolved conflict: AOL's characterization of AB 660 describes "Use By" as tied to food safety, while the bulletin's own language frames it as a producer quality guarantee. Those are meaningfully different standards. The bill text is publicly available, but the two readings have not been reconciled in the available reporting, and Trader Joe's has not issued a public statement clarifying how it will apply the label.

No label at all remains normal for certain categories. Plants and flowers, alcohol, household items, and unprocessed produce are exempt from the new code-dating requirements, AOL notes. Nothing has changed for those products.

Most of the label transition happens upstream. Vendors and warehouse crews are responsible for updating product packaging before items reach store shelves, according to the bulletin. For products prepared or thawed in-store, employees will apply updated date stickers directly. The bulletin specifically names deli smoked salmon and fresh-baked baguettes as examples getting the sticker treatment.

Mixed labeling on shelves is expected during the transition. Old "Sell By" packaging and new "Best If Used By" packaging may sit side by side as vendor updates work through the supply chain. The rollout will continue over the coming months, with July 1, 2026 as the California compliance deadline, AOL reports.

A few things worth knowing while the transition plays out:

• "Best If Used By" is now the standard label on the vast majority of products. It marks peak quality, not the point at which food becomes unsafe.
• "Use By" appears on ready-to-eat refrigerated vacuum-sealed seafood and similar refrigerated items. Whether it functions as a safety cutoff or a quality guarantee remains unresolved in the available reporting.
• No date label on alcohol, unprocessed produce, plants, or household goods is normal. That hasn't changed.
• Deli and in-store bakery items like smoked salmon and baguettes will carry date stickers applied by store staff, so those should stay consistent even as vendor packaging catches up.

The conflict over what "Use By" actually means is the clearest unresolved issue in this story. AOL's summary of AB 660 ties the label to food safety. The leaked bulletin frames it as a producer quality guarantee. A safety cutoff carries different weight than a quality assurance date, and the two characterizations are not interchangeable.

The bill text is publicly available and would resolve the question. Until Trader Joe's issues a formal statement or the statute is read directly against the bulletin language, the distinction stays open. That's also the core limitation of this story: one leaked internal bulletin, one state law, one nationwide rollout, and one definition that the available reporting hasn't pinned down.

AB 660 applies only to California retailers. Trader Joe's is implementing the standard in all 50 states. No federal mandate required, no industry-wide agreement. The grocer ran the math on dual labeling systems and apparently found consistency cheaper than complexity. Whether other major grocers make the same call voluntarily or wait for their own state deadlines is the next question worth watching.