Date labelling isn’t paperwork for its own sake — it’s the difference between a kitchen that knows what’s safe to serve and one that’s guessing. Get the basics right and it becomes second nature; get them wrong and it’s one of the fastest ways to fail an inspection or, worse, serve something you shouldn’t.
Use-by vs best-before
Safety date. Never serve after it — even if it looks and smells fine.
Quality date. Still safe to eat after — it may just be past its best.
Use-by — safety date
Never use food after this date, even if it looks and smells fine — harmful bacteria can be present with no visible sign. Applies to high-risk foods: meat, fish, dairy, ready meals. Serving food past its use-by date in a commercial kitchen is illegal.
Best-before — quality date
Food is still safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best for flavour or texture. Not a safety issue. Common on dry goods, tinned food and frozen products.
Display until — retail only
Used by retailers to manage stock rotation, not a safety date. It doesn’t appear on food you buy for the kitchen — focus on the use-by date instead.
Day dots
Day dots are colour-coded adhesive labels used in professional kitchens to track food safety — each day of the week gets its own colour, so anyone can see at a glance when something was prepared and when it needs to go. Whatever labelling system you use, every label needs to show:
- What the food is
- When it was prepared or opened
- When it must be used by
Always apply a label to:
- Any opened packaging
- Any prepped or cooked food going into storage
- Any ingredient decanted from its original container
Simple rule: if it doesn’t have a label, it doesn’t go in the fridge.
FIFO — First In, First Out
Always use older stock before newer stock, so nothing sits at the back of a fridge or shelf until it goes off.
- When restocking, put new deliveries behind the existing stock.
- Check dates on every delivery — refuse or flag anything already close to its use-by.
- Rotate stock every day during prep.
- Mark the date on anything transferred from its original packaging.
Shelf life after opening or cooking
These are safe house conventions rather than fixed law — where a manufacturer’s packaging says “use within X days of opening”, that on-pack instruction always takes precedence.
Common mistakes
- Serving food past its use-by date.
- Reusing the original packaging date after transferring food to a new container.
- Not labelling prepped food — “I’ll remember” isn’t a food safety system.
- Using cooked rice the next day without reheating it to a 75°C core (England, Wales & NI guidance). In Scotland, reheated food must legally reach 82°C.
- Refreezing raw food that has already been defrosted — bacteria can survive the first freeze. Cooked-from-defrosted food may be frozen once.
Labelling is one part of the system
Date labelling protects stock day to day, but on its own it’s just a sticker — an inspector wants to see it backed by the rest of a food safety management system: temperature logs, cleaning records, allergen information and delivery checks all sitting together. Running it digitally means every label decision is tied to a timestamped record, not just a felt-tip note that can be rubbed off or missed.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between use-by and best-before?
Use-by is a safety date — never serve food after it, even if it looks and smells fine, because harmful bacteria can be present without any visible sign. Best-before is a quality date — the food is still safe to eat but may not be at its best for flavour or texture. Only use-by applies to high-risk foods like meat, fish, dairy and ready meals.
What are day dots and do I need to use them?
Day dots are colour-coded labels used in professional kitchens to track when food was prepared or opened, at a glance. There’s no single legal requirement to use a specific colour system, but every opened, prepped or decanted item needs a label showing what it is, when it was made or opened, and when it must be used by — day dots are simply a fast way to do that consistently.
What is FIFO in food safety?
FIFO — First In, First Out — means using older stock before newer stock, so nothing sits at the back of a fridge or shelf until it goes off. New deliveries go behind existing stock, dates get checked on every delivery, and anything close to its use-by gets flagged or used first.
How long can cooked food be kept in the fridge?
It depends on the food — cooked meat or poultry is typically good for 2 days, opened tinned food for 2 days once transferred to a sealed container, and cooked rice should really only be kept until the next day if it was refrigerated within an hour of cooking. Where the manufacturer’s packaging gives a "use within X days of opening" instruction, that takes precedence over general guidance.
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Related: Food safety management software guide · Food hygiene checklist · Kitchen cleaning schedule · Safe cooking temperatures
Last reviewed July 2026 · HospoPilot editorial · General guidance, not legal advice.