Labeling: An Overlooked Aspect of Restaurant Operations

When you think about restaurant operations, your mind probably goes to front and back of house service, inventory management, or food preparation. Take a moment to consider the smaller details that keep operations running day after day.  

Barcode labeling is often overlooked, but it’s an important aspect of restaurant operations. Today’s labeling has evolved into more than putting information on a label –it has specific processes needed to help keep operations running smoothly and keep customers safe. 

Why Is a Modern Labeling System Important?

A modern labeling system equips restaurants with tools to maintain consistency, meet regulatory requirements, and grow their operations efficiently. In food service, safety and accuracy are essential, and outdated methods or labeling mistakes can lead to serious consequences. The first step toward better labeling? Make sure the right system is in place. 

Labeling systems directly affect the success of a restaurant by making sure regulatory compliances are met and giving customers clear information about what they're eating. In everyday restaurant operations, labels play a vital role in tracking shelf life, identifying allergens, and communicating special preparation instructions. For example, when menus have allergen-free dishes or customers request a dish without dairy or gluten, clearly labeling ingredients and food storage containers can help prevent accidental consumption of allergens. 

Labeling can also help restaurant operations with: 

• Accurate tracking: Labeling easily allows restaurant operations to track inventory on which ingredients they have, so nothing goes to waste or isn’t stocked.  
• Waste reduction: By tracking stock levels and expiration dates, labels help eliminate food waste and spoilage by supporting FIFO (first in, first out) practices.  
• Point of sale: Grab-and-go options with readable barcode labels ensure a smooth and error-free transaction at the point of sale. 
• Efficiency: QR codes help restaurants save money by eliminating the need to print physical menus. Customers can quickly scan the QR code with their phone to view the menu, place orders, and even pay. QR codes can also provide access to allergen disclosures and ingredient lists, offering greater transparency and convenience. 

How Does a Modern Labeling System Help with Food Safety? 

Food safety will always be a top priority for restaurant operations and labeling plays a crucial part in ensuring compliances are met. 

Modern labeling helps restaurants meet regulations from organization like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), which requires that labels on food products prominently display the presence of any ingredient from one of nine food allergens. The nine food allergens include: 

• Peanuts 
• Eggs 
• Milk & milk by-products 
• Shellfish 
• Wheat 
• Tree nuts 
• Soy 
• Fish 
• Sesame 

The FDA also requires labels to include a full list of ingredients along with nutritional information like calories, fats, sugars, and vitamins. The FDA requires the nine common allergens to be clearly identified. The EU regulations on the provision of Food Information for Consumers (FIC) aim to protect customers' health by making it mandatory to highlight 14 allergens when they appear in ingredients lists. These rules help consumers with dietary restrictions stay safe and make smart choices about what they eat. 

Whether restaurants offer dine-in or to-go options, labeling plays a part. For restaurant operations that are sit-down, proper labeling helps kitchen staff follow FIFO practices to reduce food waste. Labeling can also improve communication between front-of-house staff and back-of-house staff. When servers note a modification or food allergy, the kitchen staff is able to follow that request accurately, which overall creates a better reputation for safety and reliability for the restaurant’s brand.  

For restaurant operations that offer to-go options or prepared meals, ingredients must be listed correctly in descending order by weight, and for those ingredients that are high-risk to people, common allergies must be correctly highlighted. To meet regulatory requirements and ensure accuracy, modern labeling systems should offer features that help. Features like:  

• Tagged text management: Allows operations to automate stylistic differences for predefined text, such as allergens. For example, automatically bold the word "egg" or "peanut" whenever they appear in an ingredients list.  
• Database connection: Allows teams to pull in variable data to create and print accurate and consistent nutrition facts labels.  
• Pre-made label templates: Can help to make sure that labels have all the necessary components.  

With the right tools, restaurants can ensure food safety, reduce risk, and build customer trust.  

How a Modern Labeling System Continues to Help Businesses as They Expand 

As businesses start to grow and expand, labeling complexes can also start to increase. Restaurant operations dealing with multiple locations or off-premises dining, such as takeout or delivery, need a labeling system that can keep up with the changes, while allowing operations to stay accurate and efficient.  

The Real Good life is a meal delivery service based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As their operations grew, their need for labeling grew. Before investing in professional labeling software, their team was wasting hours handwriting every label with the name of the dish, instructions, and the ingredients. After implementing label design software, they were able to eliminate manual processes, reduce labeling errors, and gain efficiency with ease to use barcode labeling software with little to no IT involvement.  

How to Expand Labeling for Restaurant Operations to a Larger Scale  

If restaurant operations continue to expand on a big scale, there are options when it comes to the way they can print labels. Investing in an enterprise labeling solution, such as automated label printing or centralized label management, can improve speed, accuracy, and confidence in the labeling process. 

Automation is a powerful labeling tool that can replace the manual task of creating and printing a label. The goal of automation is to minimize touch points within the labeling process to reduce errors, which therefore reduces the waste restaurant operations are creating. Restaurant operations can use automation to generate labels from order or production data, ensuring that the correct information is printed without requiring manual input, which ultimately saves time and creates more efficiency. Kitchen staff can use automation to print labels with the current date or expiration dates for food prep. By using professional labeling software, kitchen flows become more efficient, and labels become clear, accurate, and consistent. 

For restaurant operations with multiple locations, centralized label management software can help manage labels and make sure they stay consistent across locations. Managing labeling operations from a single location helps restaurants maintain consistent branding and standardized ingredient lists, and accurate allergen disclosures. Centralized label management also makes it easy to update labels in one place and have those changes automatically reflected in another location.  

Restaurant Labeling with the Right Tools  

Labeling may seem like a back-burner task, but it plays a big role in ensuring food safety, supporting off-premises operations, maintaining brand consistency, and minimizing waste. As restaurants continue to navigate and grow their operating environment, modern labeling practices and systems offer useful benefits that can set them up for success. 

Pairing up with a labeling provider that offers features within the software to help identify allergens or specific ingredients can provide peace of mind that labels will be accurate and compliant. Barcode labeling providers can also offer guidance in any step of the labeling journey and help restaurant operations meet evolving business needs.