Food Date Labeling Act of 2025
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on July 30, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on July 30, 2025: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced it on July 30, 2025, and 7 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 6 Democrats, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on July 30, 2025, 407 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 407 days ago, on July 30, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers