Lot tracking and FEFO for supplement brands, explained from the floor.

Lot tracking means every unit of a supplement SKU is received, stored and picked under the lot code and expiry date printed on it, so the warehouse can say which lot went into which order. FEFO, first-expired-first-out, is the pick rule that ships the sellable lot with the nearest expiry date first. Together they turn a recall into a report on one lot and keep any unit from shipping closer to its date than the rule you set.

What a lot is, and why it is the unit that matters

A lot is one production run: the units made together from the same batch of ingredients, on the same line, on the same day or shift. The manufacturer prints a lot code on the bottle, pouch or blister card, next to the expiry date. Every unit in a lot shares the same history. If one bottle fails a test, every bottle in that lot is in question, and every bottle in the next lot is not.

So the lot, not the SKU, is the unit for a recall and for expiry. One SKU can sit on the shelf as several lots with different dates, and a system that knows only the SKU cannot pick by date and cannot say which bottle went to which customer. Lot tracking adds the lot as another key on every unit, at receiving, on the shelf and on the order.

Capture at receiving: the lot is recorded before the carton is shelved

The lot has to be captured at the dock, because receiving is the only moment when every unit of a lot is in one place with its paperwork. On a clean inbound the sequence is short: open the carton, scan the unit barcode to resolve the SKU, read the lot code and the date off the unit, enter them, count the units and check the count against the packing list. Then the carton goes to a bin that holds that lot only.

What slows receiving is almost always the inbound itself: two lots mixed in one carton, a lot code printed on the case but not on the unit, a packing list with no lot line, a date that can be read two ways. Each one turns a scan into a hand sort, and a hand sort is paid for in receiving hours. The inbound guide covers the rest of the pallet.

• One lot per carton. If a carton must carry two lots, divide them inside and label both on the outside.
• The lot code and the date printed on every unit, not only on the case.
• A packing list with one line per SKU per lot: SKU, lot code, expiry date, units per carton and carton count.
• Dates written so they cannot be read two ways, with the date type named. If only a manufactured date is printed, give the shelf life in months.
• The stop-ship rule for each SKU, as the shortest remaining life a unit may have and still ship, so a short-dated lot goes on hold at the dock.
• The storage condition for any heat-sensitive SKU.
• Advance notice before the truck: the inbound reference, the carrier, the expected date, the pallet and carton counts, and the test certificates if you keep them.

FEFO picking: first expired, first out, from the first order

FIFO ships the lot that arrived first. FEFO ships the lot that expires first. They disagree whenever a later inbound carries an earlier date, which happens when a manufacturer ships from older stock or you consolidate inventory from another warehouse. For dated goods FEFO is the rule, and it has to be the system’s rule, not the picker’s memory.

An order arrives for a SKU. The system lists the sellable lots of that SKU, sorts them by expiry date, skips any lot on hold or past its stop-ship date, and sends the picker to the bin holding the earliest sellable lot. The picker scans the unit, and the scan confirms the SKU and the lot. A unit from the wrong lot fails the scan. The lot code is written to the order line, and that order-to-lot link is what a recall trace runs on later.

Say an order asks for three units and the earliest sellable lot has two left. The pick takes two from that lot and one from the next, and the order record shows both lots. Kits work the same way, each component picked by lot. A lot on hold is invisible to picking, so a hold stops a lot shipping on every channel at once, without touching a listing.

Expiry rules for sellable stock: set the window before the first inbound

The stop-ship date is the last day a unit may ship to a customer: the expiry date minus the shelf life you want a customer to have when the bottle lands. The hold date comes earlier, the day a lot is flagged so you can decide what to do with it while there is still time. Set both per SKU before the first lot arrives, because the system applies them at receiving and at every pick.

Say a bottle is a thirty-day supply and you want every customer to have at least six months on the date when it arrives. Your stop-ship date is six months before expiry. Your hold date might sit a month or two before that, so a lot is flagged while it can still go out through a promotion, a wholesale order or a donation instead of to disposal.

If you also replenish Amazon from the same stock, Amazon applies its own rules to expiration-dated inventory: an accepted date format, where the date must appear on the unit and the carton, and how much shelf life a unit needs on arrival. As of October 2026, Amazon’s Seller Central post on expiration-dated inventory lists those rules. Read the current version before each FBA pallet is built. The FBA prep checklist covers the cartons and labels.

A lot does not leave the system when it leaves the shelf. Whatever you decide for short-dated or expired stock, the move is logged against the lot with a quantity, a date and a method, so the received count still ties out.

How a recall trace works, step by step

A recall is a lot problem. The trigger can be a supplier notice, a lab result, a run of complaints or a precaution. It is fast only when the lot was captured at receiving and written to every order since. Then the trace is a report, not a search through every carton.

1. 01You name the lot: the SKU, the lot code or codes, and the instruction, stop shipping, pull from the shelf, and whether customers will be contacted. If the codes are uncertain, give a received-date range.
2. 02The 3PL puts the lot on hold. Picking cannot see it on any channel from that moment, and open orders allocated to it move to another sellable lot or wait.
3. 03The units are pulled from pick bins to a quarantine location and counted against the system quantity. A variance here is a finding in itself.
4. 04The orders are listed: every order that shipped a unit from the lot, with order number, channel, ship date, units, tracking number and destination. Orders not yet delivered are listed on their own.
5. 05Returns come back under the lot. Each returned parcel is received, the lot code is read, and the units go to quarantine, never to a pick bin.
6. 06Neighboring lots are checked: other lots of the same SKU, and lots from the same manufacturer received around the same date. They stay sellable unless you widen the hold.
7. 07The lot is closed out. You choose the disposition, destroy, return to the manufacturer, or release if the lot is cleared, and the closing report ties the quantity received to the quantities shipped, on hand, returned and disposed of.

Gummies and heat: a melted bottle is still a lot

Gummies, softgels, probiotics and some chews do not like heat. A gummy bottle that sits in a hot trailer or on a porch in July arrives as one block. It is a transit problem, and the lot discipline still applies: when complaints arrive you want to know whether they cluster on one lot, which points at the product, or on one region in one hot spell, which points at the weather.

As of October 2026, FedEx’s page on shipping perishables says temperature-sensitive contents can be damaged by heat or cold, advises shipping at the beginning of the week so a package spends less time in its network, describes insulated containers and gel packs for goods that must stay cold, and suggests Hold at Location or Signature Required for temperature-sensitive packages shipped May through September so they are not left outdoors. Whether your gummies need a liner and a gel pack is your call per SKU and per month. What applies to every heat-sensitive supplement is less time in transit in the hot months and a parcel that does not sit on a porch.

Say your rule is that every order with a gummy SKU gets an insulated liner and one gel pack from June through September. That maps into the WMS as a packing rule for those SKUs, and the materials are billed as they are used. For storage, tell us in the 3PL intake, which takes about ten minutes, what your product needs, because climate-controlled storage is available and the specifics are set case by case in the proposal.

Lot tracking on our floor

Supplements, gummies, beverage and food-grade goods are received by lot with expiry dates on our floor, and picking runs first-expired-first-out from the first order, so the oldest sellable lot ships first. Receiving is scan-to-stock: every unit is scanned against your SKU list, and cycle counts keep the dashboard count equal to the shelf count. Receiving is billed hourly, and an inbound that arrives with the checklist above takes fewer hours than a mixed pallet with no packing list. Inventory ships to 465 Mola Blvd, Dock 10, Elmwood Park, NJ 07407.

Every unit is scan-verified against the order before it goes in the box, which is how pick and pack error stays under 0.3% across 1.2M+ orders a year. Makks, a gummy vitamin brand, ships from this floor. In its words: “YNK runs our playbook. Stock ready, shipping fast, margins up.” Orders in by 12pm ET ship the same business day. Later orders ship the next business day, two to three in peak.

Returns come back to the same floor. Each parcel is received, graded, then restocked or set aside per your policy, at an estimated $3.00 per parcel. The returns guide covers the grading step. Relabeling a lot, for example stickering a date in a marketplace’s format, runs as special-project labor at an estimated $35 per hour. Handling is an estimated $3.00 per order and storage an estimated $0.65 per cubic foot per month, on the rate card, with no setup fee.

Questions supplement brands ask about lots