Food Code Date Marking: The 7 Day Rule Explained

Food Code date marking is the 7 day rule: ready-to-eat food that needs refrigeration, held in your kitchen for more than 24 hours, must carry a date and be used or thrown away within 7 days. It is one of the most common violations inspectors write, mostly because of missing labels, wrong counting, or combined dishes with the wrong date. This guide explains which foods need a date, how to count the days, how freezing and combining work, the exemptions, and label systems that actually get used.

The rules are in sections 3-501.17 and 3-501.18 of the FDA Food Code 2022. States adopt the code on their own schedule, and a few have different rules, so check yours. Any plan you build is a draft for your health department to review.

Why date marking exists

Most bacteria grow very slowly at 41°F. Listeria monocytogenes is different: it can grow at refrigeration temperatures. Over days, a small amount of Listeria in a ready-to-eat food such as deli meat, soft cheese, cooked chicken salad or smoked fish can reach levels that make people sick. Listeria is especially dangerous for pregnant women, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. CDC describes Listeria as a serious infection for these groups on its prevention pages.

The 7 day limit at 41°F is the Food Code's way of keeping that growth within safe bounds without testing every container. Ready-to-eat food matters most because it will not be cooked again before eating.

Which foods need Food Code date marking

Date marking applies to food that is all of these:

• ready to eat, meaning it will not be cooked again before eating
• TCS (time/temperature control for safety)
• held refrigerated for more than 24 hours

Examples that need a date:

• cooked meats, poultry and fish held for later use
• chicken, tuna, egg and pasta salads made in house
• cooked rice and pasta
• soups and sauces made ahead
• cut melons, cut tomatoes and cut leafy greens
• opened packages of deli meat
• opened containers of soft cheese, such as ricotta or brie
• sliced cheese from a block
• hummus and dips made in house
• cooked vegetables

Examples that do not need date marking under the Food Code:

• raw meat, poultry and fish (not ready to eat)
• food used within 24 hours
• non-TCS food such as most bread and whole fruit
• foods specifically exempted (see below)

Many kitchens label raw items anyway, for rotation. That is good practice but not the Food Code rule.

How to count 7 days

The day of preparation is day 1. Count forward 7 days. The food must be used or discarded by the end of day 7.

| Prepared on | Day 7 (use or discard by end of) | |---|---| | Monday | Sunday | | Tuesday | Monday | | Wednesday | Tuesday | | Thursday | Wednesday | | Friday | Thursday | | Saturday | Friday | | Sunday | Saturday |

A simpler way to remember: prep day plus 6. Food made Monday the 3rd is discarded at the end of Sunday the 9th.

The label can show either the preparation date or the discard date. Many kitchens show both to avoid confusion. Whatever you choose, use it consistently and train staff on it.

Commercially processed food

When you open a commercial package of ready-to-eat TCS food, such as a log of deli turkey or a tub of cottage cheese, the clock starts when the package is opened. That day is day 1. The food must be used within 7 days or by the manufacturer's use-by date, whichever comes first. Label the opened package with the open date or the discard date.

An unopened manufacturer package follows the manufacturer's date while it stays sealed.

Combined foods

When you combine ingredients with different dates, the combined dish takes the date of the earliest ingredient. If you make chicken salad on Thursday using chicken cooked on Monday, the chicken salad must be discarded by the end of Sunday, because the chicken's clock started Monday.

This is one of the most common date marking mistakes, because the person making the dish naturally writes today's date. Train prep staff to check the dates of components before labeling.

Freezing and date marking

The Food Code allows food to be frozen and the 7 day clock to pause. The time before freezing counts, and the remaining time applies after the food is thawed. To make this work, the label needs to show enough information:

• the date prepared
• the date frozen, or the number of days used before freezing
• the date thawed, with the new discard date

For example, soup made Monday and frozen Wednesday has used 3 days. When it is thawed the following month, it has 4 days left, counting the day it is removed from the freezer. Check how your health department wants frozen items labeled; some prefer a specific format.

Freezing does not kill Listeria. It only stops growth while frozen.

Exemptions from date marking

The Food Code exempts certain products, mainly because their acidity, salt, low water activity or other factors limit Listeria growth. The exemptions include, in summary:

• deli salads such as ham salad, seafood salad, chicken salad, egg salad, pasta salad, potato salad and macaroni salad when manufactured in a food processing plant regulated by a food regulatory agency
• hard cheeses and certain semi-soft cheeses made under federal standards
• cultured dairy products such as yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk
• preserved fish products such as pickled herring and dried or salted cod, and other acidified fish products
• shelf-stable, dry fermented sausages such as pepperoni and Genoa salami that are not labeled "keep refrigerated"
• shelf-stable salt-cured products such as prosciutto and Parma ham that are not labeled "keep refrigerated"
• shellstock

Read 3-501.17 for the full list and the conditions. Note that a deli salad made in your own kitchen is not exempt; the exemption is for salads made in a regulated processing plant.

Discarding: section 3-501.18

Food must be discarded when:

• it exceeds the 7 day limit (or the manufacturer's date if sooner)
• it is in a container without a date when a date is required
• it is marked with a date that exceeds the allowed time
• it was combined with an ingredient that exceeded the limit

In practice, an unlabeled container of ready-to-eat TCS food is discarded unless the person in charge can show when it was made.

Date marking at temperatures other than 41°F

Some older state codes allowed cold holding at 45°F, with a shorter 4 day limit. The current Food Code uses 41°F and 7 days. If your state uses an older code, check its rule.

Label systems that work

Written labels

Masking tape and a marker, or printed labels. Write the item, the prep date, the discard date and initials. Cheap and flexible. Handwriting can be a problem.

Day dots

Color coded dissolvable labels with a different color for each day of the week. Staff can see at a glance which items expire today. Day dots are best used alongside a written date, because colors alone can be confusing after a week, and some systems color by prep day while others color by discard day. Pick one and post a chart.

Label printers

Small printers that print item, prep date, discard date, allergens and initials at the push of a button. More expensive, but legible and fast. Many connect to a tablet or recipe list.

What to write

| Item | Prepared | Use by | Initials | |---|---|---|---| | Chicken salad | Mon 11/2 | Sun 11/8 | JM |

Adding allergens to the label helps your allergen program too. See food allergen control plan.

A daily date check

Make date checks part of the opening or closing routine:

1. Walk the walk-in and reach-ins.
2. Pull anything at or past its discard date.
3. Pull anything with no label that should have one.
4. Record discarded items on a waste log if you track food cost.
5. Put the oldest food in front (first in, first out).

This takes 10 minutes and prevents most date marking violations.

Date marking and your HACCP plan

Date marking is a control for Listeria growth during cold storage of ready-to-eat food. In a restaurant HACCP plan it may be a CCP at the cold storage step for ready-to-eat items, or it may be handled as a prerequisite program with a written procedure. Either way, write down:

• which items are dated
• how labels are written
• who checks daily
• what happens to expired or unlabeled food

See critical control point examples and hazard analysis examples.

Date marking for special processes

Some processes have different storage limits. Reduced oxygen packaged food, cook-chill bags and sous vide items stored under specific Food Code conditions may have limits such as 30 days at 38°F or less, or shorter limits at 41°F, depending on the process and any variance. These are separate from the 7 day rule and need their own labels and logs. See the reduced oxygen packaging HACCP plan, the cook-chill HACCP plan and the sous vide HACCP plan.

Date marking for food trucks and caterers

Food trucks often prep at a commissary and carry food for several days. Every container of ready-to-eat TCS food needs a label when it leaves the commissary, and the truck needs a daily date check. Caterers cooking ahead for events need to plan prep so that food served at the event is still within its date. See the food truck HACCP plan and the catering HACCP plan.

Date marking in different kinds of kitchens

Full service restaurants usually have the widest range of prepped items: sauces, dressings, cooked proteins, cut vegetables. A label printer pays for itself quickly in a kitchen like this, because legibility and speed matter when dozens of containers are labeled each day.

Quick service and fast casual kitchens often prep the same items every day and use them within 24 hours. Food used within 24 hours does not need a date under the Food Code, but a simple prep date label still helps staff rotate stock and makes it easy to show an inspector that nothing is older than a day.

Bakeries rarely deal with 7 day issues for bread, which is usually not TCS. Custards, cream fillings and cheesecakes are TCS and need dates. See the bakery HACCP plan.

Ghost kitchens running several brands in one space share coolers. Use one labeling system for all brands, and include the brand name on the label so staff do not mix up similar items. See the ghost kitchen HACCP plan.

Sushi bars use cooked and raw items with short lives. Acidified sushi rice is usually held at room temperature for a limited time under a plan, not refrigerated for days. Cooked items such as unagi and tamago need dates if held over 24 hours. See HACCP plan for sushi rice.

Why the 7 day rule is not a quality rule

Staff sometimes treat date labels like best-by dates on groceries: if it still looks and smells fine on day 8, why throw it out? The answer is that Listeria does not change how food looks or smells. Food that seems perfect can carry enough bacteria to make a vulnerable person seriously ill. The 7 day limit is a safety limit, and it does not bend for food that looks fine. Food that looks bad before day 7 should be thrown out too; the date is a maximum, not a promise.

Explaining this once during training makes staff much more willing to discard food on time.

Writing a date marking procedure

A short written procedure for your plan might read:

1. Any ready-to-eat TCS food that will be held more than 24 hours is labeled when it is put into a container.
2. The label shows the item, the prep date or open date, the use-by date (prep date plus 6 days), and the initials of the person who made it.
3. Combined foods use the earliest component date.
4. Food going into the freezer is labeled with the days already used.
5. The opening manager checks all coolers each morning, discards expired and unlabeled food, and initials the date check log.
6. Expired food is recorded on the waste log.

Common date marking violations

• No label on a container of cooked food.
• Label shows only the item, not the date.
• Combined dish labeled with today's date instead of the earliest component date.
• Opened deli meat with no open date.
• Food past 7 days still in the walk-in.
• Day dots with no chart explaining the colors.
• Labels on lids only, which get swapped between containers. Put labels on the container body.

See the health inspection food safety checklist.

Training staff on date marking

Staff need to know:

• which foods get a label
• how to count 7 days with day 1 as the prep day
• the earliest date rule for combined foods
• how the label system works
• that unlabeled food gets thrown out

A short demo with real containers, plus a posted chart, covers most of it. See HACCP training for restaurant staff.

A worked example: one week in a walk-in

Monday: cook chicken breasts for salads. Label "Grilled chicken, made Mon 11/2, use by Sun 11/8."

Tuesday: open a tub of ricotta. Label "Ricotta, opened Tue 11/3, use by Mon 11/9" (manufacturer's date is later).

Wednesday: make chicken salad with Monday's chicken. Label "Chicken salad, use by Sun 11/8" (earliest component).

Thursday: make a batch of soup and freeze half. Label frozen half "Tomato soup, made Thu 11/5, frozen Thu 11/5, 1 day used."

Sunday: at close, discard remaining grilled chicken and chicken salad.

Two weeks later: thaw the soup. Label "Thawed 11/19, use by 11/24" (6 days remaining, counting the thaw day).

Your health department may ask for a different labeling format for frozen food. Ask.

Date marking and food cost

A good date marking program also saves money. When dates are clear and the oldest food is in front, less food expires unnoticed. A waste log that records discarded items shows which prep quantities are too large. Many kitchens cut prep quantities after a few weeks of tracking.

Make labels easy to use

Date marking fails most often because labeling is inconvenient. Keep day dots or a label printer and markers at every prep station, not only in the office. Use one format across the kitchen, such as the product name, the prep date and the discard date, so anyone can read a label at a glance. Teach staff to label at the moment the container is filled, not later. A labeling habit that takes five seconds is one that survives a busy Friday.

Questions inspectors ask about date marking

Inspectors usually open the walk-in and the prep coolers and pick up containers. They ask:

• "When was this made?" If the label answers it, good.
• "What does this color mean?" Have the day dot chart posted.
• "How long do you keep this?" The answer is 7 days counting the day of preparation as day 1, unless a shorter limit applies.
• "What's in this?" For a combined dish, can you show the earliest component date?
• "What do you do with unlabeled food?" The answer is discard.

Train your opening and closing managers on these answers. They are the people most likely to be on shift during an inspection.

Build date marking into your plan

The HACCP builder adds date marking to cold storage steps for ready-to-eat foods, with the Food Code limits and a daily check. Free logs, including a date check sheet, are on the free logs page. For multiple processes, see the Plan Pack. The plan is a draft for your health department to review.

Frequently asked questions

Does day 1 count as the day of preparation?

Yes. Under the Food Code, the day of preparation or the day a commercial package is opened counts as day 1, so food prepared Monday must be used or discarded by the end of Sunday.

Does freezing stop the 7 day clock?

The Food Code allows the time food is frozen not to count, as long as the label shows the time already used before freezing, so the remaining days are applied after thawing. Your health department may set specific labeling expectations.

Do raw meats need date marking?

The Food Code date marking rule applies to ready-to-eat TCS food. Raw meats are not ready to eat, though many kitchens label them anyway for rotation.

What happens if I combine foods with different dates?

The combined food takes the date of the earliest prepared or first opened ingredient.