Waste and expiry tracking software with FIFO stock rotation and automated expiry alerts. Reduce food waste and keep compliant rotation records for audits.
Under the FSANZ Food Standards Code (Standard 1.2.5), a use-by date is a safety limit — food must not be sold after it and should not be eaten after it, because it may no longer be safe even if it looks fine. A best-before date relates to quality: food may generally still be sold and eaten after this date if it is fit for consumption and stored correctly. In short, treat use-by as a hard stop and best-before as a quality checkpoint.
FIFO stands for First In, First Out. It means using the stock that arrived or was made first — with the earliest date — before newer stock. FIFO is a core stock-rotation practice that helps ensure food is used within its shelf-life, reducing both the risk of serving expired product and the amount of usable food that goes to waste. Expiry tracking software enforces FIFO by sorting items so the oldest dated stock is always prioritised.
Generally yes. Because a best-before date relates to quality rather than safety, food can usually still be sold and eaten after it, provided the food is fit for consumption and has not deteriorated, been damaged, or spoiled. This is why some retailers discount past-best-before stock. It is a judgement call, so the item should still be checked. Food with a use-by date is different and must not be sold or eaten after that date.
A common practice is to mark opened or prepared items with the date they were opened or made and the date by which they must be used — the secondary shelf-life you assign after the original packaging is opened or the food is prepared in-house. This lets any staff member read the label and know the status. FoodSafety HQ can apply your standard secondary shelf-life automatically and calculate the internal use-by date, keeping labels consistent and legible.
A secondary shelf-life is the internal use-by you assign to a product once it is opened, decanted, or prepared, because the manufacturer date no longer reflects how long it stays safe. Setting it is a judgement based on the food type, storage conditions, and validated guidance — highly perishable, ready-to-eat foods need short, conservative windows. The key is consistency: apply the same secondary shelf-life to the same product every time, which software makes easy to standardise.
Expiry alerts notify your team before items reach their date, while there is still time to act. Near-expiry stock can be prioritised in prep and menus, moved into specials, or discarded on time if it is past a use-by. Instead of finding expired stock during a clean-out, staff are prompted to use it first — which means more food is used within its shelf-life and less is thrown away. You can configure how many days ahead alerts arrive.
It is a guide for how long ready-to-eat, high-risk food can safely spend in the temperature danger zone (5°C to 60°C). As a general rule of thumb: under 2 hours in the zone, the food can be refrigerated or used; between 2 and 4 hours, it should be used and not put back in the fridge; and at 4 hours or more, it should be discarded. The total time counts across prep, display, and service combined, not a single window.
Timestamped records of what stock you received and its dates, how it was rotated, and every disposal event — with a reason and the responsible staff member — let you quickly answer whether you held an affected batch and what happened to it. Chapter 3 of the Food Standards Code, including Standard 3.2.2, covers safe food handling and disposal and expects businesses to be traceable. A digital waste and expiry system keeps this trail so a recall or withdrawal becomes a documented process.
Yes. Being able to produce your date-marking practices, FIFO rotation evidence, and a timestamped disposal log demonstrates that your food-safety controls are actually operating day to day, which is what inspectors look for. In FoodSafety HQ every date and disposal event is recorded against the staff member who logged it, so you can generate records for any date range as part of your due-diligence documentation. This is general guidance — check your specific obligations with your local council.
They form one chain. Use-by dates captured during supplier delivery checks flow into expiry tracking and FIFO rotation, while temperature monitoring keeps stored stock out of the 5°C to 60°C danger zone that shortens shelf-life. When food is discarded, it is logged with a reason and timestamp. Together, receival, storage temperature, rotation, and disposal give you a connected record from delivery to bin that supports both compliance and waste reduction.