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Day dots are the small stickers that keep prep honest: when it was made, when it dies, who says so. Used well they're the difference between confident service and Tuesday's houmous roulette. Here's how the system works, what belongs on the label — and the one thing day dots are not: the ingredient labels Natasha's Law requires on packed grab-and-go food.
Sources checked 2026-07-17 · your local authority always has the final say.
Day dots · the essentials
Day dots are internal prep labels — food prepacked for direct sale needs Natasha's Law ingredient labelling instead.
The classic system gives each weekday a colour, and the sticker carries the facts service needs: what the container holds, when it was prepped, when it must be used by, and initials. Anyone opening the fridge can see at a glance what's current and what's for the bin — no archaeology, no sniff tests.
The discipline that makes it work is boring and absolute: label at the moment of prep (not at close-down from memory), and clear expired dots at opening and closing checks. A fridge full of accurate dots is also quiet evidence, one an EHO recognises instantly.
A statutory use-by date is the one printed on packaged food by its producer: it is a legal safety limit, and after it the food is legally treated as unsafe. A day dot must never extend one — when a supplier's use-by and your dot disagree, the printed date wins.
The date you write on house-made prep is different in kind: it's a discard date — a control from your own food safety management system, set by what the ingredients were, how it's stored and any producer guidance. Treat it as a hard stop in practice, because it's the control your system depends on; but it's your rule doing the work, not the statutory date mark. Opened packaged goods bridge the two: 'once opened use within 3 days' is the producer's instruction, and the dot is where it gets recorded.
Day dots are internal labels for your own kitchen. The moment food is packaged BY your business, at the same premises it is offered or sold from, before a customer orders or selects it — the wrapped sandwiches in the chiller — it becomes prepacked for direct sale, and PPDS food legally needs a full ingredient label with the 14 allergens emphasised. A day dot cannot do that job, and mixing the two systems up is an expensive mistake. ('Same premises' is broader than one till: the FSA treats different units your business runs within one building complex, and temporary or mobile outlets it supplies — a market stall, a food truck — as the same place, so that food is still PPDS. Food packed by a different business, or sent to your separate branch elsewhere, is standard prepacked food with its own labelling regime.)
If your cafe batch-packs anything for self-service, read the allergen guide below — the labelling regime is different and the stakes are higher.
Common questions
A small prep label — usually a coloured sticker keyed to the day of the week — recording what a container holds, when it was prepped, its use-by, and who labelled it. It's how kitchens run stock rotation on house-made prep and opened products.
The stickers themselves aren't named in law; what food law requires is that food is safe, and use-by limits are respected — which in practice means a reliable way of marking and rotating prep. Day dots are the standard way kitchens meet that, and inspectors expect to see a working system.
No. Day dots are internal prep labels. Natasha's Law (PPDS) applies to food packaged by your business at the same premises it is offered or sold from, before the customer orders or selects it — that food needs a full ingredient label with the 14 allergens emphasised, which a day dot cannot provide. 'Same premises' includes units your business runs in one building complex and temporary or mobile outlets it supplies; food packed by a different business, or sent to a separate branch, is standard prepacked food under its own labelling rules.
Yes — ProCafe's Kitchen Labels (a Pro feature) prints day dots and prep labels from the products you've set up, with owner-confirmed shelf lives, discard dates computed at print time and a print history that can't be quietly edited. Handwritten dots work too; the discipline matters more than the pen.
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Links verified 2026-07-17. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.
More guides: SFBB for cafes · Fridge & freezer temperatures (UK) · UK allergen rules · EHO inspections · Cleaning schedules · Food hygiene ratings · Chopping board colours
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