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[117H6167]

.....................................................................

(Original Signature of Member)

118

CONGRESS

ESSION

H. R. ll

To establish requirements for quality and discard dates that are, at the

option of food labelers, included in food packaging, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Ms. P

INGREE

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on llllllllllllll

A BILL

To establish requirements for quality and discard dates that

are, at the option of food labelers, included in food

packaging, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food Date Labeling 4

Act of 2023’’. 5

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6

In this Act: 7

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(1) A

DMINISTERING SECRETARIES

.—The term 1

‘‘administering Secretaries’’ means— 2

(A) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re-3

spect to any product that is— 4

(i) under the jurisdiction of the Sec-5

retary of Agriculture; and 6

(ii)(I) a poultry product (as defined in 7

section 4 of the Poultry Products Inspec-8

tion Act (21 U.S.C. 453)); 9

(II) a meat food product (as defined 10

in section 1 of the Federal Meat Inspection 11

Act (21 U.S.C. 601)); or 12

(III) an egg product (as defined in 13

section 4 of the Egg Products Inspection 14

Act (21 U.S.C. 1033)); and 15

(B) the Secretary of Health and Human 16

Services, with respect to any product that is— 17

(i) under the jurisdiction of the Sec-18

retary of Health and Human Services; and 19

(ii) a food (as defined in section 201 20

of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic 21

Act (21 U.S.C. 321)). 22

(2) D

ISCARD DATE

.—The term ‘‘discard date’’ 23

means a date voluntarily printed on food packaging 24

that signifies the end of the estimated period of shelf 25

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life under any stated storage conditions, after which 1

the food labeler advises the product not be con-2

sumed. 3

(3) F

OOD LABELER

.—The term ‘‘food labeler’’ 4

means the producer, manufacturer, distributor, or 5

retailer that places a date label on food packaging 6

of a product. 7

(4) Q

UALITY DATE

.—The term ‘‘quality date’’ 8

means a date voluntarily printed on food packaging 9

that is intended to communicate to consumers the 10

date after which— 11

(A) the quality of the product may begin 12

to deteriorate; but 13

(B) the product remains apparently whole-14

some food (as defined in subsection (b) of the 15

Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation 16

Act (42 U.S.C. 1791(b))). 17

SEC. 3. QUALITY DATES AND DISCARD DATES. 18

(a) Q

UALITY

ATES

.— 19

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—If a food labeler includes a 20

quality date on food packaging, the label shall use 21

the uniform quality date label phrase under para-22

graph (2). 23

(2) U

NIFORM PHRASE

.—The uniform quality 24

date label phrase under this paragraph shall be 25

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‘‘BEST If Used By’’ or, if permissible under sub-1

section (c)(3), the standard abbreviation of ‘‘BB’’, 2

unless and until the administering Secretaries, act-3

ing jointly, specify through rulemaking another uni-4

form phrase to be used for purposes of complying 5

with paragraph (1). 6

(3) O

PTION OF THE LABELER

.—The decisions 7

on whether to include a quality date on food pack-8

aging and which foods should be so labeled shall be 9

at the discretion of the food labeler. 10

(b) D

ISCARD

ATES

.— 11

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—If a food labeler includes a 12

discard date on food packaging, the label shall use 13

the uniform discard date label phrase under para-14

graph (2). 15

(2) U

NIFORM PHRASE

.—The uniform discard 16

date label phrase under this paragraph shall be 17

‘‘USE By’’ or, if permissible under subsection 18

(c)(3), the standard abbreviation of ‘‘UB’’, unless 19

and until the administering Secretaries, acting joint-20

ly, specify through rulemaking another uniform 21

phrase to be used for purposes of complying with 22

paragraph (1). 23

(3) O

PTION OF THE LABELER

.—The decisions 24

on whether to include a discard date on food pack-25

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aging and which foods should be so labeled shall be 1

at the discretion of the food labeler. 2

UALITY

ATE AND

ISCARD

ATE

ABEL

-3

ING

.— 4

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—The quality date or discard 5

date, as applicable, and immediately adjacent uni-6

form quality date label phrase or discard date label 7

phrase— 8

(A) shall be— 9

(i) in single easy-to-read type style; 10

and 11

(ii) located in a conspicuous place on 12

the package of the food; and 13

(B) may be on the label or, at the discre-14

tion of the food labeler, elsewhere on the pack-15

age. 16

(2) D

ATE FORMAT

.—Each quality date and dis-17

card date shall be stated in terms of the month and 18

year, or, as appropriate, the month, day, and year. 19

(3) A

BBREVIATIONS

.—A food labeler may use a 20

standard abbreviation of ‘‘BB’’ and ‘‘UB’’ for the 21

quality date and discard date, respectively, only if 22

the food packaging is too small to include the uni-23

form phrase described in subsection (a)(2) or (b)(2), 24

as applicable. 25

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(4) F

REEZE BY

.—A food labeler may add ‘‘or 1

Freeze By’’ following a quality date or discard date 2

uniform phrase. 3

(d) E

DUCATION

.—Not later than 1 year after the 4

date of enactment of this Act, the administering Secre-5

taries, acting jointly, shall provide consumer education 6

and outreach on the meaning of quality date and discard 7

date food labels. 8

(e) E

FFECT

; P

REEMPTION

.— 9

(1) E

FFECT ON SALE OR DONATION OF

FOODS

.—Nothing in this Act or an amendment 11

made by this Act prohibits any State or political 12

subdivision of a State from establishing or con-13

tinuing in effect any requirement that prohibits the 14

sale or donation of foods based on passage of the 15

discard date. 16

(2) E

FFECT ON INFANT FORMULA

.—Nothing in 17

this Act or an amendment made by this Act— 18

(A) applies with respect to infant formula 19

(as defined in section 201 of the Federal Food, 20

Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321)); or 21

(B) affects the requirements relating to in-22

fant formula under section 412 of the Federal 23

Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 24

350a) or any other applicable provision of law. 25

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(3) P

REEMPTION

.—No State or political sub-1

division of a State may establish or continue in ef-2

fect any requirement that— 3

(A) relates to the inclusion in food labeling 4

of a quality date or a discard date that is dif-5

ferent from or in addition to, or that is other-6

wise not identical with, the requirements of this 7

Act and the amendments made by this Act; or 8

(B) prohibits the sale or donation of foods 9

based on passage of the quality date. 10

(4) E

NFORCEMENT

.—The administering Secre-11

taries, acting jointly and in coordination with the 12

Federal Trade Commission, shall ensure that the 13

uniform quality date label phrase and uniform dis-14

card date label phrase are standardized across all 15

food products. 16

(5) S

AVINGS

.—Notwithstanding paragraph (3), 17

nothing in this Act, any amendment made by this 18

Act, or any standard or requirement imposed pursu-19

ant to this Act preempts, displaces, or supplants any 20

State or Federal common law rights or any State or 21

Federal statute creating a remedy for civil relief, in-22

cluding a remedy for civil damage, or a penalty for 23

criminal conduct. 24

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(f) T

IME

EMPERATURE

NDICATOR

ABELS

.— 1

Nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this Act 2

prohibits or restricts the use of time-temperature indicator 3

labels or similar technology that is in addition to or in 4

lieu of any uniform quality date label phrase under sub-5

section (a)(2) or uniform discard date label phrase under 6

subsection (b)(2). 7

SEC. 4. MISBRANDING. 8

(a) FDA V

IOLATIONS

.—Section 403 of the Federal 9

Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 343) is amend-10

ed by adding at the end the following: 11

‘‘(z) If it is food and its labeling is in violation of 12

section 3 of the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.’’. 13

(b) P

OULTRY

RODUCTS

.—Section 4(h) of the Poul-14

try Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 453(h)) is amend-15

ed— 16

(1) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 17

end; 18

(2) in paragraph (12), by striking the period at 19

the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 20

(3) by adding at the end the following: 21

‘‘(13) if its labeling is in violation of section 3 22

of the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.’’. 23

EAT

RODUCTS

.—Section 1(n) of the Federal 24

Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601(n)) is amended— 25

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(1) in paragraph (11), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 1

end; 2

(2) in paragraph (12), by striking the period at 3

the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 4

(3) by adding at the end the following: 5

‘‘(13) if its labeling is in violation of section 3 6

of the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023.’’. 7

(d) E

RODUCTS

.—Section 7(b) of the Egg Prod-8

ucts Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1036(b)) is amended in 9

the first sentence by inserting ‘‘or if its labeling is in viola-10

tion of section 3 of the Food Date Labeling Act of 2023’’ 11

before the period at the end. 12

SEC. 5. REGULATIONS. 13

Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 14

of this Act, the administering Secretaries, acting jointly, 15

shall promulgate final regulations for carrying out this Act 16

and the amendments made by this Act. 17

SEC. 6. DELAYED APPLICABILITY. 18

This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 19

apply only with respect to food products that are labeled 20

on or after the date that is 2 years after the date of pro-21

mulgation of final regulations under section 5. 22

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