How to label food in a restaurant?

Learning how to correctly label kitchen products is essential to prevent our preparations from becoming contaminated. A mistake in the interpretation of this information puts the health of customers at risk.

Given the above, we want you to know everything about the correct labeling of food, to ensure the quality of your products. Are you interested? Read on!

Why should I label food in a restaurant? Advantages and benefits

You may think that food labels in the kitchen are not relevant, but why label something that I can recognize just by looking at it? Advantages of identifying kitchen products go far beyond that.

Here are the main benefits of this practice in your kitchen:

Guaranteed product safety

Labeling food in a kitchen reduces the possibility of contracting food-borne diseases. In addition, by placing labels on their respective containers, it is easier to identify the type of food, storage date and expiration date.

Keep in mind that products that are subject to time and temperature variables should be stored considering these variables:

• Date on which the food was added.
• Type of food.
• Expiration date of the food.

Therefore, be certain that if you serve them after the expiration date, they can cause illnesses to your restaurant’s customers.

Cost reduction

Labels in your catering business help you to know the exact expiration date of the food. This reduces the amount of food wasted in your restaurant kitchen.

In addition, if you keep proper control, you will know how much time you have left to use a particular product. Therefore, you will be forced to consider dishes that include that item before they go bad.

Organization

Another important aspect is that labeling your food is crucial to keeping your pantry organized. Make sure all storage containers for meats (for example) are close to each other. Likewise, fruits, vegetables and many others.

This will help you among other things to prevent cross contamination of food. As we know, keeping fruits and vegetables away from meat is essential to protect your diners from contracting dangerous diseases.

Inventory optimization

Another notable advantage is evident in inventory work. With labels you will see how your food organization improves, allowing you to store according to categories. This speeds up the inventory process, and consequently you will find all your items faster.

As a result, you will know how to control inventory and on the day you need to order from suppliers you will know exactly what you need to buy.

Kitchen product labels: how to do it in 5 steps

Now that you know the importance of labeling your food, it’s time to learn the details of this practice. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to label kitchen products:

1. Identify the product. To do this, write the name of the food on the label. Make sure the font size is large enough to quickly find what you are looking for.
2. Make sure the employees who created the label put their name or initialson it. This will establish accountability in the process, in case something goes wrong.
3. Record the date and time the product was stored . This detail is vitally important for food safety. With this data you will determine the shelf life of the preparations.
4. Also include expiration dates on labels, i.e. the shelf life of the product. This information will be visible when you take the container out of the refrigerator, and will prevent you from serving spoiled food.
5. Finally, include preparation instructions, transfer conditions and warnings on your labels (if necessary). This will help kitchen workers provide continuity in the process.

Product labeling process Why are they color-coded?

For some years now, commercial kitchens have standardized the labeling of kitchen foods. To this end, a universally accepted color-coded system was created to reduce confusion from one kitchen to another. This methodology optimizes the identification and discarding of spoiled food in your catering business.

Therefore, you should add to your labels the color that corresponds to the day of the week in which it was stored. Below, we show you how they are distributed:

• Monday: Blue.
• Tuesday: Yellow.
• Wednesday: Red.
• Thursday: Brown.
• Friday: Green.
• Saturday: Orange.
• Sunday: Black.

Food Label Printers: 3 Options to Consider

Manually writing your labels will cost you considerable time. With them, there is the possibility of miscalculations, and the consequences that this can bring.

Nowadays, you have the option of installing desktop printers. These tools automate the food labeling of your catering business, allowing you to save time and money

Here are 3 alternatives to automate the labeling process:

1. Basic Food: Printer to control kitchen processes

The Basic Food label printer is an affordable and easy-to-use alternative for food dating. It automatically calculates processing, thawing and shelf life data. In addition, you can include the printing of other fields such as weight, serial, responsible, among others.

From your computer, export the list of products to the device through the Internet connection. After loading, move the equipment to the work point and print the necessary labels for each process in the kitchen.

2. Easy Food: Kitchen and allergen control

Moving a little further on in the technological options, we find this kitchen printer capable of incorporating food traceability options. This model focuses on solving problems in the kitchen. To do this, it will manage the use of ingredients and link them to their life cycles.

After installing it and uploading the data of your products, it will be able to work autonomously. In its database, it has detailed information on each product, which allows it to automatically determine its shelf life. And the best thing is that it indicates on the label the allergens of each food to suggest sanitary procedures.

3. Dual Head: Dual Head Kitchen Printer

Finally, we show you a 2-in-1 device. Specialized in the area of food traceability, this printer has the ability to automatically generate two types of kitchen labels. For example, you could print one with the expiration date, while the second one indicates bar code, allergens, weight, etc.

Unlike the previous ones, it does not require connection to an external computer, as it has an internal software. All functions are loaded into the software and can be manipulated from a touch panel that is easy to control. It also has alarms to warn of expiration and you can store instructional documents for food safety training.

This concludes this article on kitchen product labels, and how to maintain safe practices in your restaurant. Share this information to optimize food processing within the hospitality industry. We invite you to subscribe to our platform and receive more interesting news, we are waiting for you!