Prep, cooked, defrost & day dots
Prep labels and day dots that carry the record, not just the colour
A day dot tells you which day. A Dill label tells you what it is, when it was made, when to use it by and who signed it, all calculated from shelf-life rules you set once and printed straight to your Brother hardware. No marker pens, and nothing to work out mid-shift.
What gets labelled, and when
Every time food is decanted, portioned, cooked and chilled, or moved out of the freezer, the clock starts and it needs a label. A busy kitchen makes hundreds of those decisions a shift, and each one is a chance to write the wrong date, forget the initials, or leave a tub unlabelled at the back. Dill prints the right label for each moment, with the date and the use-by already worked out, so the decision is made for whoever is on shift.
The label types, and how they differ
Most kitchens use one label for everything and rely on handwriting to say what kind it is. These are the jobs a label actually does, and where the clock starts for each.
| Label | Goes on | Carries | Clock starts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prep | Anything decanted, portioned or made up | Product, prep date and time, use-by, who signed it | When it was made |
| Cooked | Cooked and chilled batches | Product, cook date and time, use-by, who signed it | When it came off the heat |
| Defrost | Anything moved from freezer to fridge | Product, defrost start, use-by, who signed it | When it went into the fridge |
| Opened | Decanted or opened stock in original packaging | Product, opened date, use-by, who signed it | When the seal was broken |
| Use first | The oldest batch of a product on the shelf | Product and the use-first flag | Rotation, not shelf life |
Day date and use-by are not the same thing.
A day date tells the kitchen which shift a container belongs to. A use-by is a food safety limit calculated from your shelf-life rules. Most kitchens write one and mean the other, which is why two containers of the same thing often carry different dates.
Use-first is a rotation flag, not a date.
It says nothing about how long the food is good for. It says this one goes before that one. It is the label that stops a fresh batch being opened while yesterday's is still at the back.
Ploughman's Pickle (Decanted)
Moving off day dot stickers
What a coloured sticker tells you, and what it does not
Day dots do one job well. Glance at a shelf and the colour tells you which day something was prepped. They are cheap, they are everywhere, and there is nothing wrong with the idea.
What they do not carry is what the thing actually is, when it needs using by, or who prepped it. That gets handwritten on top, and handwriting is where it falls apart. Ink runs in a chiller. Tuesday's writing is unreadable by Thursday. And when an inspector asks what was in the container, the sticker cannot tell them.
Dill prints the colour-coded day, the product name, the prep time, the use-by and the initials of whoever signed it, on one label, from shelf-life rules you set once. You keep the glance-and-know of a day dot and gain the record underneath it.
How it works
Set each item's shelf-life rule once, centrally.
Prep an item and Dill prints its label, with the date, use-by and day-dot colour already calculated.
It prints straight to your Brother hardware, no handwriting and no new kit.
Every site labels the same way, so standards hold everywhere.
What an EHO looks for
An environmental health officer is checking that your food safety controls are real and recorded, not just written in a policy. On the shelf that means a label that says what the food is, when it was made, when to use it by and who signed it, legible and consistent across the kitchen.
- Every container labelled, with nothing handwritten over the top
- Use-by dates that follow a rule, not a guess
- An attributable record of who prepped what, and when
Where the food is prepacked for direct sale, the allergen rules apply too. See how Natasha's Law and PPDS labelling work for the detail.
Kitchens already running this way
60%
less time on labelling
Atis Group, 16 sites
25%
reduction in food waste
Atis Group
Set the night before
policy changes live by the morning shift
BrewDog Waterloo
Frequently asked questions
What is a day dot?
What is the difference between a day date and a use-by?
Do you print cooked and defrost labels too?
Can we still use coloured day dot stickers?
Do prep labels need allergens?
Does it work with our Brother printer?
Label your prep properly
See Dill print prep, cooked, defrost and day-dot labels on your own setup. Book a demo and we will show you live.
Book a Demo