Checking Use-By and Best-Before Dates on Incoming Stock

When stock arrives, check every product's use-by or best-before date before you sign for the delivery and put it away. Reject anything past its use-by date, near expiry, or with missing or unreadable date marking, and set a minimum shelf-life standard so suppliers deliver stock with enough days left to sell it safely. Record your checks at receiving to protect food safety and support traceability. Key takeaways: Use-by dates are about safety: food must not be sold or used after its use-by date. Best-before dates are about quality, and that food can still be sold if it is safe and fit.. Check date marking on every delivery before you sign, and reject stock that is past its use-by date, unmarked, unreadable or shorter-dated than your agreed standard.. Set a written minimum shelf-life standard with each supplier so incoming stock arrives with enough remaining life to sell or use it safely.. Combine your date check with a temperature check and rotate on a first-expired, first-out basis so older stock is used first.. Record what you received, its dates and any rejections. Good receiving records support traceability and help you act quickly in a recall.. Use-by versus best-before: what the dates mean Australian date marking uses two different labels, and the difference matters at receiving. A use-by date is a safety limit. After that date the food may be unsafe even if it looks and smells fine, so it must not be sold or used. A best-before date is a quality limit. After it the food may lose flavour, texture or nutritional value but is generally still safe, and it can still be sold provided it remains fit for sale and is not damaged, deteriorated or perished. Bread is the common exception, often carrying a baked-on or baked-for date instead. Whatever the format, the date only holds if the product has been stored as the label directs, which is why the temperature of a delivery matters as much as the printed date. A correctly dated product that has been left out of refrigeration is no longer safe simply because the date has not passed. Use-by: a safety date. Do not accept, sell or use stock past it.. Best-before: a quality date. Stock may still be sold if it is safe and fit for sale.. The printed date assumes the food was stored correctly the whole time, including in transit.. Why checking dates at receiving matters Receiving is your last practical chance to stop out-of-date or short-dated stock entering your business. Once a delivery is unpacked, mixed with existing stock and shelved, spotting a problem product becomes far harder, and a use-by breach can end up in food you serve. Checking at the door keeps unsafe or unsaleable stock out before it becomes your problem. Under the Food Standards Code, food businesses must sell only safe and suitable food and be able to trace where their food came from. A delivery arriving with dates that have already passed, or with so little life left that you cannot realistically use the stock in time, is a supplier performance issue you should catch and document. Consistent checks also build the evidence trail that helps you respond quickly if a product is recalled. It is the last easy point to reject a problem before stock is mixed and shelved.. It stops short-dated stock you cannot use in time from being wasted or served unsafely.. It creates the records that support traceability and a fast recall response.. Setting a minimum shelf-life standard for suppliers Do not leave remaining shelf life to chance. Agree a minimum shelf-life standard with each supplier in writing, so you know how many days of life a product should have left when it lands at your door. A common approach is to require a set percentage of the total shelf life, or a fixed number of days, remaining on delivery. Short-life chilled goods and long-life dry goods will need different rules. Base the figure on how fast you actually move that product and how you use it. A busy kitchen turning over fresh dairy daily can accept tighter dating than a venue holding slow-moving specialty lines. Put the standard in your supplier agreement or purchase terms, tell delivery drivers and receiving staff what to look for, and treat repeated breaches as a supplier issue to raise, not something to quietly absorb. Specify a minimum number of days, or percentage of total shelf life, remaining on delivery.. Set different standards for short-life chilled stock and long-life dry or frozen goods.. Record the standard in your supplier terms and brief receiving staff so it is enforced consistently.. What to inspect on every delivery Work through each delivery methodically before you sign. Check that the use-by or best-before date is present, legible and not past, and that it meets your minimum shelf-life standard. Smudged, missing or over-labelled dates are a red flag: you cannot verify the safety of a product you cannot date. Also confirm the label is intact and that required information, including allergen declarations, is present and readable. Pair the date check with a temperature check on chilled and frozen goods. Cold potentially hazardous food should be delivered at or below 5 degrees C, and frozen food should be hard-frozen, not soft or partly thawed. Refuse loads sitting in the temperature danger zone of 5 to 60 degrees C. A valid date on food that has been temperature-abused in transit does not make it safe. Date marking present, legible, not past, and meeting your minimum shelf-life standard.. Packaging intact, with allergen and other required labelling readable and undamaged.. Chilled food at or below 5 degrees C and frozen food hard-frozen on arrival.. No signs of damage, pest activity, leaks or tampering.. Rejecting and recording non-conforming stock If a product fails your check, reject it at the door rather than accepting it and sorting it out later. Note the reason, whether the date had passed, was too short, was unreadable, or the product arrived too warm, and record it against the delivery. Keep rejected stock separate and clearly marked so it cannot be mistaken for good stock and put away by accident. Good receiving records are simple but valuable. Log the supplier, the date received, the products, their use-by or best-before dates and any rejections or corrective actions. These records demonstrate due diligence, help you trace a batch if a supplier issues a recall, and reveal patterns, such as one supplier repeatedly sending short-dated goods, so you can act. Keep the paperwork or digital log with your other food safety records. Reject non-conforming stock at delivery and note the specific reason.. Segregate and label rejected stock so it is never shelved by mistake.. Log supplier, receipt date, products, dates and rejections to support traceability.. After receiving: rotation and ongoing checks Passing the receiving check is only the start. Once accepted, put stock away promptly to keep chilled and frozen goods out of the temperature danger zone, and rotate on a first-expired, first-out basis. That means placing newer stock behind existing stock and pulling the earliest-dated items first, so nothing quietly reaches its use-by date at the back of a shelf. Build date checking into your ongoing routine, not just delivery day. Check dates when you restock, during regular fridge and store walk-throughs, and when preparing food. Remove and dispose of anything that has reached its use-by date. Where you decant or repackage food, carry the original date information across so the shelf life is never lost. Consistent rotation and re-checking is what turns a good receiving process into reliable day-to-day safety. Rotate first-expired, first-out: newer stock behind, earliest dates used first.. Re-check dates during restocking, routine walk-throughs and preparation.. Carry date information across when you decant or repackage food.. Checklist: Delivery received promptly and outer packaging checked for damage, leaks and pests. Use-by or best-before date present, legible and not past on every product. Remaining shelf life meets the minimum standard agreed with the supplier. Allergen and other required labelling intact and readable. Chilled food at or below 5 degrees C and frozen food hard-frozen. Non-conforming stock rejected, reason noted, and segregated from good stock. Supplier, receipt date, products, dates and temperatures recorded. Accepted stock put away promptly and rotated first-expired, first-out. Common mistakes: Signing for a delivery before checking dates, then discovering short-dated or expired stock once it is shelved.. Accepting stock with missing, smudged or over-labelled dates that cannot be verified.. Having no agreed minimum shelf-life standard, so suppliers deliver stock too close to expiry to use in time.. Checking the date but ignoring the delivery temperature, accepting correctly dated food that has been temperature-abused in transit.. Failing to record deliveries and rejections, leaving no traceability trail for a recall or supplier dispute.. Shelving new stock in front of older stock so earlier-dated items reach their use-by date unnoticed at the back.. Losing the date information when decanting or repackaging food into unmarked containers..