First In, First Out: Private Brands Phase Out Old Product Labels

In the meantime, distributors are working to update inventory lists, and sell off the items with old labels by using the “FIFO” method — first in, first out — before shipping the products. Silverman says she hopes her company can push through existing stock to avoid extraneous costs due to relabeling.

New labels must be in place starting June 2015. After that distributors have six months — until December 1, 2015 to sell off products with old labels.

“Everybody is in the same situation,” Silverman says. “We’re trying to sell (old) inventory by the deadline, and make sure the new products and labels are in compliance.”

For some distributors, the re-labeling issues lie less with the manufacturers’ strenuous chemical evaluations and have more to do with OSHA’s faraway deadline.

Each time a new product enters a facility, employers have the responsibility to train workers on the product’s labels and Safety Data Sheets, as well as the proper use of the chemical.

Initially, OSHA required employers to train employees on the GHS Standard by December 2013. But with that deadline come and gone, distributors say they are struggling to keep their customers engaged in the changes.

“The whole problem is everybody is getting trained, trained, trained but none of the labels are going to be out until 2015,” says Daniel Josephs, general manager at Spruce Industries in Rahway, N.J. “We’re afraid people won’t remember the changes by the time the labels roll out. We have a lot of customers who don’t care because the deadline is so far off.”