In a recent article here on Life360 I talked about the news laws that would be taking effect here in my home state of California this beginning in 2012 (and I encouraged you to look up what news laws would be going into effect in the state where you live as well, which I hope you’ve done). But after writing that article I came across another law here in California that I had not heard about and frankly was a little surprised wasn’t already in effect.
As of January 1, in California and California ONLY, it became illegal to sell expired baby food and infant formula. I know what you’re thinking. “But wait, isn’t there a federal law banning selling expired baby food and formula?” Well, as it turns out there’s not. I can guess what you’re thinking again, “But, clearly most states must have laws banning that kind of thing, right?” And again, the answer is no. California became the first just this month.
The only thing stranger to me that someone just recently thought we should have a law about this is that AB 688 (the law that went into effect) was approved by the Assembly on May 19th by a vote of 50-26 and the State Senate by a vote of 27 to 12 on September 8th. So there were members of the Senate AND Assembly that didn’t vote for this?! I need to do some further research to see who exactly voted against the ban of expired baby food, but that’s for another day.
How is it that this isn’t happening in every state? And why hasn’t the FDA stepped in and created a piece of federal legislation to put a nationwide ban of selling expired baby food? Hopefully there is, and I’ve just yet to hear about it. After all, I’m just hearing about this one now and it just went into effect.
With the debate between breastfeeding and formula feeding always raging with new moms stuck somewhere in between, this is something parents shouldn’t have to be worried about. After all, isn’t this why we have and FDA?
So take this as your friendly reminder the next time you’re out grocery shopping that there isn’t anyone looking out for you and your baby. Be diligent when shopping and always check expiration dates!
Unless your in California of course, in which case shop away.
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It's amazing how many food items are sold with expired dates. You really have to check the packages. Even worse is expired baby formula for a critical time of growth in a child's life. Hard to believe it's not illegal already.
Wow! I thought it was illegal to sell expired food.
The people who voted "NO" were maybe voting that way because it may have been lumped together with other legislation they were opposed to. They vote "yes" or "no" on the whole thing, and can't pick out just what they like or don't like.
I'm always checking the expiration dates on all of our food. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to take something back to the store.
We've just become aware of how many foods are either expired or close to it. It started with a food drive my daughter was in charge of. And there it was. We HAD to check dates because the food bank wouldn't accept expired foods. We were stunned by how much we found in our own cupboards. And by how much was recently purchased. In the past our only experience had really been milk..so we had been checking the dates on that a lot. Interesting about the baby formula. I should check into this as well. There must be some kind of explanation.