Stock rotation and date-code audit
Go through every fridge, freezer and dry store, check use-by and best-before dates, move older stock to the front (first in, first out), and bin anything past its use-by date.
Go through every fridge, freezer and dry store, check use-by and best-before dates, move older stock to the front (first in, first out), and bin anything past its use-by date.
A use-by date is a legal food safety limit, not a suggestion — serving food past its use-by date is an offence under the Food Safety Act 1990 regardless of how it looks or smells. A full audit is the only way to catch what has been pushed to the back of a shelf.
Who this is for
Any venue holding stock covered by a food safety management system.
What you’ll hold
- Quarterly stock rotation / date-code audit record
Watch out for
- Rotating stock at the front of the shelf but never checking what is pushed to the back or underneath.
- Treating use-by and best-before the same — use-by is a hard legal limit, best-before is a quality guide; mixing them up either wastes food or breaks the law.
- Auditing the dry store but skipping the freezer because "frozen food does not go off" — frozen stock still carries use-by and quality dates that need checking.
Sources
- FSA — Safer Food, Better Business for caterers checked 2026-09-02
See also
- Fridge and freezer temperatures
- Put your HACCP system in place— this becomes part of getting open →
This is item 49 of 60 in the free UK Compliance Calendar. See the whole list →