Best-before date management

In food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and many other sectors the best-before date is mandatory, not a nice-to-have. Anyone who sells expired goods risks fines, recalls and lost trust. Anyone who does not pick by FEFO systematically burns margin week after week. Omneya's best-before management is the answer to that, fully integrated into stock, goods receipt, picking and sales.

Best-before dates from the first carton

At goods receipt the best-before date is recorded per batch: by GS1 barcode scan (DataMatrix with AI 17, the best-before standard on food packaging), by EDI feed from the supplier or by manual entry. Omneya validates the date against the minimum remaining shelf life stored for your range. If a delivery has too little shelf life left, it is routed into quarantine automatically until you release it (for example at a reduced purchase price).

FEFO picking: keep the margin, avoid complaints

FEFO (first expired, first out) is the only picking strategy that makes sense both economically and for safety. Omneya automatically picks the batch with the earliest best-before date first, as long as it still meets the minimum shelf life agreed with the customer. Most sectors require at least a third or half of the total shelf life to be left at dispatch. Omneya knows your rule and applies it automatically: per article, per customer, per sales channel.

Automatic block for expired batches

A batch reaches its best-before date? Automatic block: no further sales, all open reservations are moved to other batches, marketplace listings are paused. The expired batch is routed into the disposal workflow, with a GDPR-compliant audit trail for the authorities.

Early warning before you lose money

Omneya scans your stock every day: which batches will expire in the next 30, 60 or 90 days? Early warnings go to purchasing and sales. Sales can plan clearance campaigns, purchasing can adjust order quantities. You configure your own thresholds per article category, fresh produce needs a different lead time than tinned goods.

Clearance recommendations with a suggested discount

Less than 30 days of shelf life left? Omneya suggests a clearance discount automatically, based on historical data (which discount helped to clear similar articles in the past). You confirm, and Omneya creates a voucher code or reduces the price directly in the shop and on the marketplaces. Losses are avoided instead of written off after the fact.

Reporting: stock by remaining shelf life

Instead of a single stock figure, Omneya shows your stock grouped by remaining shelf life:

• Expired today: 3 units (act now)
• Expiring within 30 days: 142 units (plan a campaign)
• Within 60 days: 380 units (keep watching)
• In 90+ days: 2,100 units (nothing to worry about)

This reporting is what separates reactive from proactive inventory management.

Batch and best-before date hand in hand

A best-before date is always batch-specific. Omneya's best-before module builds on batch management: one batch has exactly one best-before date, and all stock in that batch shares it. In a recall over a best-before problem you see immediately which customers received which orders with which batches and which dates, so you can inform the people affected instead of causing blanket panic.

Compliant with GDPR and food law

Every best-before action (recording, blocking, release, disposal) is written to the audit trail with timestamp, user and reason. For inspections by the authorities (food surveillance, BVL, EMA) you export the period in one click: every movement, every decision, without gaps.