7.2 Date Marking Requirements

Some ready-to-eat foods look and smell perfectly fine well past the point where they have become hazardous. Date marking exists specifically to catch that risk, using a rule that has nothing to do with visible spoilage and everything to do with the growth pattern of one particular pathogen.

The 7-Day Date Marking Rule

Under the FDA Food Code, ready-to-eat, TCS (Time/Temperature Control for Safety) food that is prepared and held under refrigeration for more than 24 hours in a food establishment must be marked with the date or day by which it must be sold, consumed on the premises, or discarded. The maximum combined time allowed is 7 days at 41°F or below, counted from the day the food was prepared or the day a commercially processed container was opened. The day of preparation or opening counts as Day 1.

This rule applies to items such as sliced deli meats and cheeses once opened or cut in-house, cut melons, cooked pasta and rice, prepared salads (potato salad, chicken salad, egg salad), soft unripened and ripened cheeses, and sous vide items — any ready-to-eat TCS food that will be held refrigerated for more than a day.

Why 7 Days? The Listeria monocytogenes Problem

Most foodborne pathogens of concern — Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter — are effectively unable to multiply at proper refrigeration temperatures; cold simply keeps them dormant rather than actively growing. Listeria monocytogenes is different: it is a psychrotrophic organism, meaning it can continue to reproduce slowly even at temperatures as low as 34-40°F, just at a much slower rate than at room temperature. Because of this, holding food at 41°F or below is not by itself sufficient to prevent Listeria from eventually building up to a dangerous level if the food is simply kept indefinitely. The Food Code's 7-day outer limit exists to cap that slow-but-steady growth at a level still considered safe, regardless of how well the refrigeration unit is performing. This matters most for high-risk populations — pregnant women, older adults, infants, and immunocompromised individuals — for whom listeriosis can be severe or fatal.

Determining the Date Mark

The date mark itself may be expressed as either a "discard by" date or a "use by" date, depending on the establishment's labeling policy, but it must clearly communicate the last day the food may be served.

Worked Example: Deli Ham

A delicatessen opens a case of sliced deli ham on Monday and stores portions under refrigeration at 38°F for made-to-order sandwiches. Counting Monday as Day 1: Monday(1), Tuesday(2), Wednesday(3), Thursday(4), Friday(5), Saturday(6), Sunday(7). The ham may still be served through the end of the day on Sunday, but any remaining ham must be discarded starting the following Monday (Day 8).

If a staff member finds sliced deli ham in the cooler with no date label and no reliable memory of when it was opened, the safe practice is to treat it as though it has already exceeded the 7-day window and discard it — there is no way to verify it falls within a safe range without a date mark.

Combining Foods: Use the Earliest Date

When a ready-to-eat TCS food is combined with other TCS ingredients — for example, chicken salad made by mixing cooked chicken prepared on Monday with mayonnaise made on Wednesday — the finished product's date mark is governed by the earliest date (shortest remaining life) of any TCS ingredient in the mix. The chicken salad does not get a fresh 7-day clock starting from the day it was assembled; it inherits the Monday Day-1 clock from the cooked chicken, because that ingredient's shelf life is already partway used. Combining ingredients can only equal or shorten the resulting clock — it can never reset or extend it.

Freezing: The Clock Pauses, It Doesn't Reset

If TCS food is frozen before its date-mark window expires, the 7-day countdown effectively pauses while it remains frozen, since Listeria growth is halted at freezer temperatures. When the food is thawed, the countdown resumes from where it left off: the days already used before freezing, plus the days used after thawing, may not together exceed the original 7-day allowance.

Example: Food is prepared Monday (Day 1) and used for 3 days (through Wednesday, Day 3) before being frozen. Only 4 days (Days 4-7) remain in the original 7-day allowance. When the food is later thawed and returned to the cooler, it must be re-marked to reflect that only those 4 days remain — not a fresh 7.

Discard Requirements

Food that reaches its date mark without being sold, served, or otherwise used must be discarded. It cannot be relabeled with a new, later date; it cannot be refrozen to indefinitely reset the clock (freezing only pauses the original 7-day allowance, it does not grant new days); and it cannot be served past its mark simply because it still looks, smells, or tastes normal — Listeria contamination is not detectable by the senses.

Practical Application for the Food Safety Manager

• Date-mark food immediately at the time of preparation or opening, not "when there's time."
• Use a first-expired, first-out rotation based on date marks, not simply the order items were purchased.
• Spot-check reach-in and walk-in coolers routinely for missing, illegible, or expired date labels.
• Train staff that any ambiguous-age, unmarked ready-to-eat TCS food should be discarded rather than guessed at.