No matter your role in the restaurant industry, it’s likely that you’ve come into contact with food prep in the past. It can be tedious, time-consuming, and sometimes, a matter of guesswork. Though you may view writing food prep labels by hand as a necessary evil, or even as the best way to limit errors, we’re here to convince you otherwise. Here’s why you need a food prep labeling system like PrepWizard.
It saves you time
If you have a kitchen full of occupied, messy hands (who may have even messier handwriting), labeling and re-labeling hundreds of food items day after day may sound like a nightmare. If it doesn’t, it can quickly turn into one as “Best By” dates are approximated and timelines are skewed. This doesn’t even take into consideration if you and your employees are using the right types of labels or pens and markers that will last throughout the food item’s life.
With food prep labeling systems like PrepWizard, you can rest assured that the labels will dissolve when they’re no longer needed. Or, PrepWizard’s labels can work double-time to indicate both prep dates and production dates on the same label — either handwritten afterward or printed. Not to mention, PrepWizard takes all the guesswork and approximation out of Best By dating. PrepWizard’s software will automatically calculate these dates for you, right down to the minute. And, if you add in new items, PrepWizard’s system can accommodate these for you — you won’t have to add them in yourself.
It’s a best-practice
According to the USDA, labeling food products with dates is considered a best-practice, but is not necessarily required by law unless you’re working with infant formula or in poultry or meat production. However, labels are required when considering health inspections. In these cases, if your negligence is great enough, your restaurant could be shut down until you make necessary adjustments.
PrepWizard makes it easy to label food items at all stages of their lives, from pallets to plates. With three separate options, you can easily keep track of each food item’s freshness. Select the following for each of these different instances, as outlined in our FAQs:
- TRUCK: Labels for UNOPENED products received from the truck delivery.
- PREP: Prepped items that are stored BEFORE being put into production.
- PROD: Labels for products AFTER they are put into production and use.
It keeps your customers safe
Old, mislabeled food being sent out to customers is a recipe for disaster. No pun intended. You should never cut corners when it comes to the health, safety, and satisfaction of your customers. Even if your food items are otherwise safe, but not so fresh, your customers will be reluctant to return. Pushing the limit for food items’ lives, even by a little bit, can open the door for not only unwanted bacteria to enter, but also for customers to leave and never come back. As we’ve mentioned prior, PrepWizard makes it easy to track the freshness of all of your food items quickly and efficiently, no matter how much turnover you have.
It keeps your employees safe
We just mentioned unwanted bacteria. Not only does this pose a risk for your customers, but it also poses a risk for your employees. Though foodborne pathogens may be more likely to arise from other unclean practices, they’re not guaranteed to resist populating spoiled food items. Without a proper food labeling system, your employees can easily or unknowingly harbor a sample from a spoiled food item, and either spread it around to other food items, other coworkers, or their families at home. Since PrepWizard offers a free app that works on many supported devices (iPhone, Android, and more), all of your employees can keep track of food items on their own devices at the same time.
It helps you organize your inventory
With crisp, accurate, easy-to-read labels from PrepWizard, you’ll have a much harder time letting anything go to waste. You’ll have crystal-clear indicators of when a food item needs to be used. This can help you keep your shelves organized on a “first-in, first-out” basis, as well as help you determine specials and other menu changes if need be. Once items arrive at your facility from the truck, you’ll be able to consistently and accurately record Best By dates for that specific food item until it’s time to start anew on the next shipment. It’s really that easy.
It’s cost-effective
As you may notice on PrepWizard’s home page, we promise a return on investment in less than six months — and we mean that. For many reasons mentioned above, making a small investment in a professional, efficient food prep labeling system today will quickly impact tomorrow’s profit. Or, within six months, that is. By the numbers, you can easily save $500 to $1,000 annually by removing the need to hand-write dozens and dozens of labels that may be inaccurate, mind you. Not to mention, PrepWizard’s free app can be used on equipped devices in your restaurant by an unlimited number of employees.
