A sandwich line preps dozens of items a day, each with its own shelf life. Here is how franchise owners print those labels in one tap instead of writing them by hand.
A Subway franchise kitchen preps a lot before the doors open: sliced vegetables, proteins, sauces, bread. Every container needs a prep label with what it is, when it was made, when it has to go and who made it. If you have searched for a subway label printer, you already know the problem: handwritten labels are slow in the morning rush and hard to read by the afternoon shift.
BOH Wiz is used by Subway franchise locations in New York. This post explains what a sandwich line prep label needs, how franchise owners print them in one tap, what it costs, and how to keep every store labeling the same way.
Most prep labels on a sandwich line carry the same four things:
Your franchise’s own food safety rules set the shelf life for each item, and local health codes can be stricter. For ready-to-eat food kept at 41°F or colder, the FDA Food Code allows up to 7 days, counting the day it was made. Your chart may be shorter for some items. A label printer uses your numbers, not ours.
Handwriting works when one careful person does all the prep. It breaks down when the line gets busy:
None of that is about effort. It is about asking people to do math and neat handwriting in the busiest hour of the day. We wrote more about this in why we stopped handwriting prep labels.
The prep list lives in the BOH Wiz app on an iPad, iPhone or Android tablet. Someone taps an item, and a label prints with the item, the prep date, the use-by date and their initials. No handwriting and no date math. Need ten containers of the same item? Print ten at once.
The shelf life for each item is set once. After that, nobody on the line has to remember whether an item keeps for one day or three. The app does the math every time, the same way, on every shift.
The printer is a direct thermal printer, so there is no ink, toner or ribbon to buy. It is small enough to sit on a prep table, and it pairs with the tablet over Bluetooth. If your store already has a compatible direct thermal label printer, you can pair that one and just order labels.
Franchise kitchens hire often, and every new person has to learn the labeling rules. With a printed label, there is less to learn. A new crew member does not need to memorize the shelf life of every item or how your store writes dates. They find the item on the prep list, tap it, and stick the label on the container.
That also means the labels from a person on their first day look the same as the labels from someone who has been there two years.
Many franchise owners run more than one location. With BOH Wiz, each store prints from the same item list, so the labels look the same everywhere. Every print is saved in label history, so you can see what was labeled at each store, by whom and when. More on that in labeling across multiple locations.
There is no per-location fee and no per-user fee, so adding a second or third store does not add a monthly bill.
When a health inspector looks at your walk-in, they want to see that every container is labeled with what it is and when it has to be used or thrown out. Printed labels are easy to read at a glance, and they all look the same. If someone asks when an item was made or who made it, label history has the answer, even after the container has been emptied and washed.
For the full breakdown, see pricing, our post on what a kitchen labeling system really costs, or how printed labels compare with Sharpie and masking tape.
Send us your item list with the shelf life for each item, and we set it up for you at no charge, so the team can start printing on day one. Then pair the printer over Bluetooth and print.
Does it work with the tablet we already have? The app runs on iPad, iPhone and Android tablets.
What if we already own a label printer? If it is a compatible direct thermal printer, you can pair it and only order labels. Call us with the make and model and we will tell you.
BOH Wiz is not affiliated with or endorsed by Subway. Subway is a trademark of its owner. We make a prep label printer and app that franchise kitchens choose to use.
Want to see it on your own line first? Start a free 30-day trial: we send the printer, you run a month of real prep, and if it is not a fit, you send it back and we pay the return shipping. Questions? Call 866.626.4949.
About the author: Jose Salazar
Jose Salazar has worked in restaurants for more than 20 years as a restaurant manager, general manager, executive chef and corporate training manager, and has helped open 63 restaurant locations for several restaurant companies. He studied restaurant management and culinary arts, and leads product at BOH Wiz.
Tap an item on the prep list and the label prints. $0 today, and if the printer goes back, you pay nothing.
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