Guide · Buffet labels
Buffet label requirements for hotels
Written by a hotel banquet operations manager
Every dish on a buffet line needs a label a guest can read at arm's length. What a label must say depends on where you operate, so check your local food code. This page covers what hotel banquet labels usually carry and how to keep them right on the day.
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Check your local food code first
Rules for allergen notices and menu labeling differ by country, state and county. This page is practical advice from a banquet operations person, not legal advice, and it doesn't state what any jurisdiction requires. Your health department, your food safety manager and your local food code decide what your labels must show.
What a buffet label usually carries
Hotels commonly put these on each label or card:
- The dish name, as written on the event order and the menu
- A Contains line for the allergens in the dish
- Dietary codes, such as vegetarian, vegan or dairy-free
- A second language line, if your guests or staff need one
- For station cards: the event, the date, the station and the chef
Allergens: a line someone has checked
The nine major US allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame. A Contains line should list the ones in the dish and nothing else, and it should be checked with the kitchen before it is printed. Labels print exactly as entered, so a wrong entry prints wrong.
Hotelwright's buffet labels print the line only after a person confirms the event's allergens. The allergen label legend is a printable key for your line.
Dietary codes and a legend
Codes save space but only work if guests can decode them, so print a legend with the same letters. GF should read "Made without gluten-containing ingredients", not "gluten-free", because a kitchen that handles wheat can't promise the second.
Make it readable
Labels are read standing up, in dim light, by someone in a hurry:
- Print at 100%, never "fit to page", so text lands where the stock expects it
- Keep text away from the card edge so nothing is cut off
- Keep the dish name large and the allergen line clear of decoration
- Print one sheet on plain paper first and hold it against the stock
Day-of checks
The label is only right if it matches the plate:
- Every label on the line matches the dish in front of it
- If the menu changes after printing, reprint that day's labels and take the old ones away. Hotelwright marks them Stale
- If a guest asks about an allergen, send the question to the captain and the kitchen, not to a guess
FAQ
What banquet managers ask.
What must be on a buffet label?
It depends on where you operate, so check your local food code. Hotels commonly show at least the dish name, the allergens in it and any dietary codes.
Do labels need to be in two languages?
That depends on your local rules. A second language line helps Spanish-speaking guests and staff, and Hotelwright can print one on every label.
What if the menu changes after labels are printed?
Reprint them. Hotelwright marks that day's labels Stale when the menu changes, so the old ones don't go out on the line.