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This policy brief examines the historical impetus for placing dates on food—namely a desire to indicate products’ freshness—and the ways in which the system has failed to meet this goal, while creating a range of ancillary problems. Relevant federal laws and authorities are described along with a review of the legislative history on this topic, and a comparison of state laws related to food date labeling is provided. The paper then describes why and how date labels contribute to the waste of edible food in the United States.