Basically everything should have a date on it. I cannot think off the top of my head anything that wouldn’t be dated besides maybe topping shakers (the larger plastic container you refill from can be dated) so if anyone else thinks of something..? Essentially, everything should be dated and is fine as is until that date, but if you use it all up prior to the date on the day dot, then you would bring that container to the back to be washed and grab a new, clean container.

So for example syrups should be dated out 1 month and if you’re swapping out a syrup, you just toss the empty bottle and stick that pump into a new bottle and date the new one. We have a cleaning process for our pumps during clean play so you don’t have to worry about that each time you get a new bottle of syrup. Sauces like white mocha and caramel drizzles should be dated out 2 weeks out, but if it runs before you reach that 2-week mark (which it likely will) then you’d just put that bottle to get washed. Same with sauce pump containers and what not.

But let’s say it’s 6 pm on Saturday and you see the hot bar mocha pump is dated for 3 pm with a Saturday sticker. That means the mocha is past it’s shelf-life and you need to toss out that mocha and bring the container to be washed. You’d replace it with a new, clean container that has fresh mocha.

When you’re working and you need to grab a clean container for something and date it, you can reference this site: https://sbuxdates.com/ for dating things and figuring out how long they’ll last. I hope that makes sense!

Small wares are on a 4 hour timer at our store. That includes inclusion bowls/spoons. Everything gets a date dot.

My current store drives me crazy with stuff like this.

Since we go through inclusions so fast, we just open new bags throughout the day as needed into the old tub without dating anything. At the end of the day they dump whatever is left so it never makes it to expiry, just like guava/peach or iced coffee. It's messy and annoying to have to open a bag mid-sequence but it's not the worst.

Same with chai/white mocha/frap. We just keep dumping new bottles/boxes into the old container and wash pumps at night. No dates. We date our regular mocha but that's probably only because we're less consistent with sales on that one, so there's way more leftover at EOD.

I'm not grossed out by it so much as confused about why it's allowed - I understand standard to be that everything gets dated always, and every shop i've worked at prior to this one keeps a list of exp date guidelines so it's not confusing or easily messed up.

Less cool is that we don't date our refreshers or nondairies at all. My SM cares a LOT about refrigeration standards (e.g. oat milk MUST be cold 30 minutes before use everyone!!!) but not dating anything.... seems like it would matter more with milks.

I'm honestly not sure what happens when they get an inspection/audit. I'd expect them to take major points for that.