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Date labels

Date labels are the stickers you put on stock to show when it must be used by, when it should be defrosted by, when it was opened or when it was made. They support your stock rotation and are a core part of running a first-in-first-out kitchen.

You will find them at /safety/labels under the Date labels tab, and on the Team App for printing from the floor.

What you can print​

Four label kinds, each with its own heading on the label:

  • Use by - "use by Friday 9 May" stickers for cooked or opened ready-to-eat stock.
  • Defrost by - for items moved from freezer to fridge that need to be used within a defined window.
  • Opened on - for jars, containers, and packs whose shelf life starts from the moment of opening.
  • Made on - for food you prepare on site, such as sauces, dressings and cooked fillings.

Date labels print on these label sizes:

  • Sunmi 58×40 mm (the default)
  • Sunmi 58×60 mm
  • Thermal 3×2 in
  • Thermal 4×2 in

The Avery L7163 A4 sheet prints PPDS labels only, so it isn't offered for date labels, and the Sunmi 58×40 mm label prints date labels only. The other three sizes print both. On sizes that also print PPDS labels, date labels follow the same print rules: text never prints below 7 pt, and a label that won't fit suggests a larger label or asks you to shorten the text.

Printing from the web​

From the Date labels tab on /safety/labels:

  1. Choose the Heading: Use by, Defrost by, Opened on or Made on.
  2. Enter the Item, for example "Pesto". It is required: Print label waits until there is one.
  3. Check the Date. It starts from the heading: use by two days from today, defrost by tomorrow, and opened on or made on today. Change it to the product's real shelf life before you print.
  4. Choose the number of Copies (1 to 200) and the Preset (label size).
  5. Click Print label.

The label downloads as a PDF ("Label for Pesto printed"): open it and print it. The heading, preset and copies stay as they were for the next label, so you can print a run of items quickly. There is no "prepared by" field.

A date set on an earlier day (on a page left open overnight, say) goes back to the new day's suggestion when you come back to the page, or when you press Print label. That print stops, with "It's a new day, so the date is back to today's suggestion. Check it, then press Print label." Check the date and print again. A date typed today is kept.

Printing from the Team App​

The Team App has the same date-label flow, designed for staff to print from a phone or tablet on the floor: heading, item, date, label size and copies, then the phone's share sheet sends the label to a printer (AirPrint on an iPhone, or a print app on Android). It is intentionally short because it is used many times a day during prep.

The Team App route is the recommended surface for kitchen staff. The web route is there for managers setting things up at the start of service or printing in bulk.

What date labels are not​

Date labels are an operational artifact, not a regulated declaration. Unlike PPDS labels, they do not write a per-print audit row, and they do not require an allergen review. The point is to get the right sticker on the right tub at the right time, with as little friction as possible.

If you also want centralised tracking of opened-on dates, expiry alerts, or first-in-first-out enforcement at inventory level, that belongs to CostingBrik / StockBrik and is separate from the labelling artifact here.

Cross-references​