Deli stall stock clerk - date labels and first-in-first-out rotation SOP: how to stamp, when to rotate, and the hour things must come down

Write an archivable "Date Labels and First-In-First-Out Rotation
SOP" for a cooked-food stall's stock clerk, covering the whole
day from stamping through rotation to takedown.

My stall: one chilled display case; products are fresh-made
braised goods, re-braised goods, split combo trays, and cold
salads (adjust to actual; leave deadline numbers as [ ]).

Structure: sections along the label's life cycle. Every step
carries four fields - who / when or trigger / pass criterion /
violation handling. "Watch the dates" and "check regularly"
are banned throughout.

1. Stamping (how labels get made - the core of this SOP)
- Fresh-made: stamped with the make-finish time, in one fixed
  position (tray's lower-right corner) across the whole case -
  one glance compares old against new
- Re-braised: two times stamped - original make and re-process
  - and the expiry is "strict wins": whichever of the two
  deadlines comes first governs. The algorithm is fixed;
  nobody adjudicates at the counter
- Split combo trays: inherit the earliest deadline among their
  mother trays; splitting never restarts the clock
- Cold salads: make time only; same-day clear; they never
  enter the re-braise cycle
- Red line: an unlabeled tray counts as discard - "looks like
  today's" is not evidence; an unreadable faded label gets the
  same treatment
- Violation: an unlabeled tray found on the case comes down
  and is discarded, plus one line in the day's notes about
  which step failed to stamp

2. Rotation (first-in-first-out made physical)
- Two fixed rotation passes: after lunch, before dinner - move
  earliest-deadline trays to the front of the serving path
- Restock rule: always pull-old-then-add-new - take the front
  old trays off, place the new trays at the back, restore the
  old to the front; "just slide it in front" is banned
- One-way traffic: the case is picked from one side and
  stocked from the other, arrows taped, unchanged across shift
  swaps
- Violation: an early-deadline tray found buried - reface it
  now; happening twice in one day moves the rotation passes
  earlier and logs why

3. Takedown (when the clock wins)
- A tray unsold at deadline comes down at the deadline,
  appearance irrelevant - its fate then follows the close-out
  checklist (discard, or re-braise-and-restamp if it qualifies)
- The deadline table lives taped to the case: product / sell-by
  window on one page (fresh braised within [M] hours; re-
  braised strict-rule minus another [K] hours; salads same-
  day) - a product absent from the table does not go on the
  case
- Near-deadline call: at [T] minutes to deadline, the clerk
  tells the cutter "this one's close - push it first" -
  pushing is the cutter's call, announcing is the clerk's
- Violation: a past-deadline tray found on the case comes down
  and is discarded; the same product overrunning two days
  running is a stocking problem and moves to the owner

4. Records
- One page a day: trays stamped, both rotation passes ticked,
  products and weights taken down, unlabeled incidents
- This page lives in the same binder as the close-out returns
  log - at month-end, whichever product runs over deadline
  daily is the evidence for whether the standing order shrinks

Constraints:
- Every criterion executes on the spot (check the label, follow
  the arrows, read the table) - goal-statements like "maintain
  FIFO" banned
- All deadline numbers stay as [ ]; the structure and the
  algorithms are fixed - the numbers are this stall's quality
  promise, the structure is the process's foundation, and they
  get set separately
- Under two printed A4 pages; the deadline table laminated
  separately on the case

Why it is written this way

First-in-first-out fails at deli counters for want of three details nobody ever adjudicated: which time a re-braised tray gets stamped, where the restocking hand goes, and who an unlabeled tray belongs to. This SOP's core asset is the first one - re-braised goods follow "strict wins over lenient": the earlier of the original-make and re-process deadlines governs. That converts a live judgment call into a mechanical comparison no amount of rush can get backwards; the lenient reading sounds reasonable (it was just re-braised, it's fresher) and is precisely how a tray of braised food acquires permanent life, deadline renewed at every pass.

"Pull-old-then-add-new" and one-way traffic are the only two physical implementations of FIFO - the principle is geometry, not attitude: the earliest deadline must occupy the position the customer and the tongs reach first. "Just slide the fresh one in front" is the natural restocking motion and the exact cause of burying, which is why it's written as a banned motion rather than a reminder. Unlabeled-equals-discarded is the harshest and most necessary line: as long as "probably today's" counts as evidence, every expired tray becomes today's.

Deadline numbers as blanks while structure and algorithms stay fixed reflects this SOP's sense of proportion: the numbers are each stall's own quality promise (they follow the customer base, the products, the local rules) and copying someone else's is meaningless - while "strict wins," "pull-old-then-add-new," and "unlabeled is discarded" are algorithms and structure that travel between stalls and deserve welding in place. The records page sharing a binder with the close-out returns log is what lets the two ledgers talk at month-end: the product running over deadline daily and the product returning daily point at the same stocking decision.

Variables