Inventory
Shelf-life and expiry management with FEFO
Shelf-life management for food manufacturers: expiry or best-before dates calculated per batch, first-expiry-first-out picking, customer shelf-life rules, near-expiry alerts and returns recorded by reason, so less stock is written off.
What is shelf-life management software?
Shelf-life management software tracks the expiry or best-before date of every lot and batch and uses it to decide what is picked, sold or cleared first. Formezy calculates dates from each product's shelf life at packing, picks stock first-expiry-first-out, applies each customer's minimum shelf-life rule, alerts you to near-expiry stock and records returns by reason, so expiry losses become visible and avoidable.
Dates that come from the batch
In Formezy, the expiry or best-before date is calculated from the product's shelf life when the batch is packed, and the same date is printed on the pack. The date in the system and the date on the shelf always agree.
Raw materials get their expiry dates at receipt, so ingredients are used in date order too.
First-expiry-first-out picking
When a dispatch is prepared, Formezy suggests the batch with the earliest expiry that the customer will accept. Customer rules, such as a minimum remaining shelf life for modern trade, are stored against the customer, so pickers are not guessing and short-dated stock is not sent where it will be rejected.
Near-expiry alerts
Set the warning window for each product: a day or two for bread, a few days for milk and curd, weeks or months for biscuits, spices and beverages. Stock entering the window appears in alerts and dashboards, so sales and dispatch can move it while it still has value.
Shelf life across segments
Different products need different rules, and one system has to handle them all:
- Bread, buns and cakes with use-by dates measured in days
- Milk, curd and paneer that also depend on staying cold
- Biscuits, snacks and spices with best-before dates months away, where the risk is slow-moving stock
- Juices and beverages with seasonal raw materials stored for long periods
In Formezy, the shelf life, date type and near-expiry window are set per product, so each follows its own rule while stock, picking and alerts work the same way.
Returns, stales and write-offs
Returns are recorded by route, customer, product, batch and reason. Stale, damaged and short-dated returns are separated, so you can see which routes or products return the most and adjust order quantities or production plans. Write-offs are recorded with their value, so the cost of expiry is a number, not a guess.
The bread, buns and rusk flow on the bakery ERP page shows where dates, dispatch and returns are recorded in a plant with a very short shelf life.
What you get
What Formezy records for shelf life
Questions
Shelf-life management: common questions
Still have a question?
Talk to a food ERP specialist about your own plant and process route.
What is the difference between FIFO and FEFO?
FIFO ships the oldest stock first; FEFO ships the stock that will expire first. They differ when batches of the same product have different shelf lives, for example because of different packaging or ingredients. For food, FEFO is the safer rule.
Can different customers have different shelf-life rules?
Yes. A minimum remaining shelf life can be set per customer or channel, and picking only suggests batches that meet it.
Does it handle both use-by and best-before dates?
Yes. Each product is set up with its shelf life and the type of date, and the batch record carries the date that is printed.
Can it alert us before stock expires?
Yes. A near-expiry window is set per product, and stock entering that window appears in alerts and dashboards.
How are returns recorded?
Returns are recorded against the route, customer, product and batch with a reason such as stale, damaged or short-dated, so return rates can be compared and acted on.
See expiry and FEFO working on your products
Book a demo and we will walk through your plant, step by step.
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