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Dates and times are important to food safety, particularly when it comes to food storage practices. You can save ingredients and leftovers, but not for too long. If stored for too long, many foods can become unsafe due to bacterial, fungal, and other microbial growth.
Luckily, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outlines several regulations regarding food storage best practices in the FDA Food Code—including date marking. Date marking is at the core of the seven-day rule for food storage and helps you set a limit on how long you can store ready-to-eat foods, as well as easily identify when it is time to dispose of them.
Understanding what date marking is and what it means for your restaurant will allow you to make more informed decisions about which ingredients to use and which to discard. In this blog, we’ll cover:
What is the seven-day rule of food storage?
How do I store date marked foods?
How do I dispose of expired foods?
Are there exemptions to date marking?
What is the seven-day rule of food storage?
The seven-day rule of food storage is a food safety standard meant to help ensure the safety of Time and Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) foods. Once you remove a TCS food from its original packaging, prepare it for use, or bring a ready-to-eat TCS food into your establishment, you may only store it in the refrigerator or cooler for up to seven days.
Pathogens can rapidly grow on and in TCS foods if you do not store them at a safe temperature. Time and temperature abuse can quickly lead to a food safety hazard and may result in foodborne illnesses. Date marking helps to maintain food quality and safety in equal measure.
You’ll want to date mark any food that meets the following criteria:
-
All ready-to-eat TCS foods
-
Refrigerated foods that you open or remove from their original packaging
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Foods or ingredients held in your establishment for longer than 24 hours
How should I date mark food?
Date marking methods will be unique to the kitchen you work in. Your manager may choose to use weekday titles, calendar dates, or color-coding to label ready-to-eat TCS food. An establishment’s staff may even develop their own shorthand to show when they receive or open food and when they'll need to consume or discard it.
An establishment’s chosen date marking system needs to have a clear and consistent location on food products. Consistency ensures no one has to search for the date mark information they need.
Every date marking system should allow anyone to easily see the dates and actions associated with a TCS food. Consider the following abbreviated example from the Wisconsin Food Code to illustrate what date marking should look like.1
You cook a turkey on the morning of October 1st. It is refrigerated for two days, then frozen on October 3rd. Freezing the turkey pauses the date mark clock until the turkey is thawed on October 10th. Thawing restarts the clock, and the turkey must be consumed or discarded by October 14th.
Some labelling for this example may look like:
|
Date |
Shelf life/day |
Action |
|
Oct. 1 |
1 |
Cook/cool/cold hold |
|
Oct 2. |
2 |
Cold hold |
|
Oct. 3 |
(Freezing pauses the clock) |
Freeze |
Clear date marking also allows foodservice professionals to easily use the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method to organize refrigerators properly. FIFO is a storage method that ensures you properly organize your cooler, refrigerator, and storage shelves by placing the oldest items at the front and the newest at the back.
The FIFO method helps prevent foodborne illness outbreaks, and a foodservice establishment can use it for both ready-to-eat TCS foods and non-TCS foods. Your establishment may pair FIFO with date marking to ensure efficient, organized food storage practices at all times.
How do I store date marked foods?
Storage and disposal methods for date marked food are mostly straightforward, with a few storage specifications that are key to know.
As per the FDA 2022 Food Code, ready-to-eat TCS food that your establishment will hold for more than 24 hours must be “clearly marked to indicate the date or day by which the food” will be eaten, sold, or discarded on the premises “when held at a temperature of 41°F or less for a maximum of seven days.”2
Put simply, you can keep ready-to-eat TCS food in the refrigerator for up to seven days. Date marking is how you and your team will keep a clear track of the date marking clock.
And remember, if you freeze food, the date marking clock stops but is not reset. So, if you store food in a refrigerator for one day at 41°F and then freeze it, you can still store the food at 41°F for up to six days after it has been thawed.
How do I dispose of expired foods?
The FDA 2022 Food Code requires that all refrigerated ready-to-eat TCS food be served, sold, or discarded within seven days.2 This seven-day period includes the day food is prepared and/or opened, PLUS six days.2
Following proper date marking and food storage best practices will help you reduce the amount of food waste your establishment produces and disposes of. Food waste has a negative impact on the environment and your bottom line. However, you can help combat food waste and its negative effects by embracing food waste reduction practices. Implementing a composting initiative or donating leftover food are just a few tactics for reducing food waste.
Additionally, you should always store food at the proper temperature, reduce air exposure by tightly sealing containers, and follow the FIFO method to further reduce food waste.
Are there any exemptions to date marking?
Certain products may be exempt from date marking. Exempt foods are often manufactured and/or packaged in regulated food processing facilities, or they meet other specific requirements.
According to the 2022 FDA Food Code, the following are exemptions from date marking.
Date marking is key to your food safety practices.
Date marking is essential to an establishment’s food safety practices. It’s a practice that you’ll need to learn in the foodservice establishment you currently work in. Each establishment has the freedom to explore date marking methods to determine what works best for their team, so you may see differences across the food industry.
Once you learn your establishment’s method, be sure to follow the set guidelines in place for their date marking procedures. You may even receive specific training on date marking from your establishment, so you fully understand the steps. Consistency in date marking is critical for any establishment’s food safety practices.
Sources:
- Wisconsin Food Code: Date Marking of Ready-to-Eat Time-Temperature Control for Safety Foods
- FDA: 2022 Food Code – Section 3-501.17
- Minnesota Department of Health: Date Marking
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