Labelling Opened & Prepared Food

Why you need it

Once food leaves its original pack, the label that told you what it was and when to use it can easily be lost. An unlabelled tub of sauce is a guess about its age, its contents and its allergens.

Safer Food, Better Business expects you to know how long food can be kept, and an environmental health officer may open your fridges to look for clear labels.

What it’s for

How to label food when you open, prepare or transfer it, why opening or preparing food never extends the original use-by date, and keeping ingredient, allergen and batch details with the food. It also notes that packaged food for sale may need fuller PPDS labels.

How to use it

1. Fix it above the prep bench or wherever your labels and pens are kept.
2. Label every container as soon as food is opened, made or decanted, not at the end of the shift.
3. Set the use-by from the original label and your safe method, never later than the date on the pack.
4. Replace smudged or unclear labels straight away, and discard food nobody can identify.
5. Show new starters a correctly labelled container on their first day.