Best-before date controls in logistics

Guide & Lexicon: Best-before Date Controls in Modern Logistics

The best-before date (BBD) is much more than just a small imprint on food packaging. In the modern supply chain, it is a critical pacesetter that determines profitability, customer satisfaction and legal compliance. If best-before date controls are neglected, there is a risk of not only massive financial losses due to spoilage of goods, but also considerable reputational damage. But how can the control of shelf lives be ensured in gigantic warehouses with tens of thousands of pallet spaces?

What does best-before date control mean? (Definition)

The best-before date control includes all logistical and administrative processes that ensure that goods with a best-before date (or a stricter use-by date) are handled and delivered in good time before expiration. It is the foundation of quality assurance in food and pharmaceutical logistics. The aim is to manage inventory in such a way that no goods in the logistics property become obsolete and complete batch traceability is guaranteed in accordance with EU Regulation 178/2002.

Warehouse Logistics: The Paradigm Shift from FIFO to FEFO

In standard dry warehouses, the FIFO principle (First In – First Out) usually applies. However, this is not enough for goods that are critical to the best-before date. Warehouse logistics necessarily uses the FEFO principle (First Expired – First Out) here. This means that it is not the goods that were delivered to the hall first that leave the hall, but the pallet whose best-before date expires next. This is crucial because manufacturing companies often deliver batches with shorter shelf lives than those that are already in the warehouse. FEFO prevents "dead capital" from accumulating in the back rows of shelves, which later has to be disposed of at great expense.

The role of IT: The WMS as a digital watchdog

Manual best-before checks with clipboard and pen have long been a thing of the past in modern distribution centers. The Warehouse Management System (WMS) acts as the digital brain of the hall. As soon as goods are received, the best-before date is recorded via barcode or RFID scan and married to the batch number. From now on, the WMS monitors each individual pallet in real time. It automatically generates alerts when critical remaining delivery times are reached and controls the routes of the industrial trucks during picking precisely in such a way that the FEFO batch is picked (system management).

Requirements for the logistics property and hall

The best IT infrastructure is of little use if the building envelope is not designed for best-before goods. The storage of temperature-sensitive food or medicines places enormous structural demands on the logistics property:

• Multi-temperature zones: The hall must have highly insulated areas (e.g. 2-8 °C for freshness, -18 °C for frozen goods).
• HACCP compliance: Industrial floors must be easy to clean and liquid-tight. Dirt corners in which pests (Pest Control) can nest must be architecturally excluded.
• Cross-docking capability: In order to minimise the time fresh produce is stored in the hall, the property requires a large number of loading gates for fast, direct handling (cross-docking).

Contract logistics: best-before date management as a value-added service

Many companies outsource the immense risk of best-before date management to specialized service providers. In contract logistics,  shelf life monitoring is a central value-added service (VAS). Service providers in modern multi-user warehouses offer their customers tailor-made service level agreements (SLAs). For example, they guarantee that a pallet reaches the supermarket with a minimum remaining time of 75%. If the goods in the warehouse fall below this value, the contract logistics provider proactively counteracts this value as part of returns or secondary market management (e.g. resale to special item markets or donations to food banks) before the goods become completely worthless.

Facts, figures, data: Why optimisation is so important

According to the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), around 11 million tons of food waste are generated in Germany every year. A significant part of this is generated in processing and logistics. Through optimized FEFO-supported hall management, logistics companies can demonstrably reduce the spoilage rate in the warehouse to below 0.5%. This not only protects the companies' balance sheets, but also pays directly into ESG goals (sustainability) and the reduction of Scope 3 emissions.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions and answers about the best-before date check

Question 1: What is the difference between the best-before date and the use-by date? Answer: The best-before date indicates until when a product retains its specific properties (taste, colour) when stored correctly. It is often still edible afterwards. The use-by date (e.g. for raw poultry) is a hard limit; after that, there is a health risk and the goods must not leave the logistics hall for the trade under any circumstances.

Question 2: How exactly does the FEFO principle work? Answer: FEFO stands for "First Expired - First Out". The warehouse management system (WMS) strictly prioritizes retrieval according to the earliest expiration date of the goods, regardless of when the pallet was physically stored in the logistics property.

Question 3: Can a standard hall be used for goods that are critical to the best-before date? Answer: Only for non-refrigerated dry goods (canned food, pasta). As soon as freshness, cold chain or pharmaceuticals come into play, the hall requires special certifications (HACCP, GDP), temperature zones and washable special floors.

Question 4: Who is liable in contract logistics in the event of an expired best-before date? Answer: This is contractually regulated in the Service Level Agreement (SLA). In general, if the contract logistics provider overlooks the date and the goods expire in his warehouse despite the agreed FEFO removal, he is usually liable for damages.

Question 5: How does artificial intelligence (AI) help with best-before date control? Answer: AI analyzes historical sales data, weather reports and seasonal trends in order to predict the stock range extremely precisely. In this way, not so many goods are stored in the first place that they could exceed the best-before date (predictive analytics).

Question 6: What certifications does a property need for food logistics? Answer: The most important standards are the HACCP concept (legally mandatory), as well as often IFS Logistics (International Featured Standard) or organic certifications, which guarantee the highest hygiene and traceability standards in the hall.

Question 7: Is expired goods allowed to remain in the hall at all? Answer: Yes, but it must be physically blocked immediately and in the WMS. It is relocated to separate restricted storage zones in order to exclude any mixing or cross-contamination with saleable goods until it is properly disposed of (e.g. in biogas plants).

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