Every lot carries its batch and best-before. Picking takes the oldest first without anyone having to remember. And the stock that needs to move this week is a report, not a hunch.
First in, first out is the wrong rule for anything with a best-before on it.
A load that arrived on Tuesday can easily carry an earlier best-before than one that arrived last week, and in food distribution it usually does. Pick by arrival order and you leave the older stock sitting there until it is worth nothing. That is why this works on FEFO, first expired first out: lots are ordered by best-before, with arrival only as a tie-break.
The picker sees which best-before to take first, on the line, while they are standing at the rack. If they take something else, it is flagged and they are asked for a note. Not blocked, because sometimes there is a good reason, but recorded, so the decision can be explained later instead of argued about.
Load the week's expected receipts and receive against them, so a short or late delivery from a supplier is obvious on the day rather than at stocktake. Every receipt captures the batch, the best-before and where it was put away, and the paperwork photo is stored with it.
From then on, that lot is tracked. You can see it on hand, move it between locations, adjust it with a reason, and watch it come off when it is picked.
Stock close to its best-before is money that is still worth something today and worth nothing next month. The short-dated report lists it by product and date, so it can be pushed to a customer who will move it, discounted while it still has value, or reallocated before it is a write-off.
Most operators find this out too late, because nobody has the dates in one place. That is the whole difference.
Every pick records the lot it came from, so a batch number traces forward to the deliveries it left on and the customers who signed for them. That is a search, not a week of going backwards through dockets, and it is the difference between a targeted recall and a total one.
It works with the picking and proof of delivery you already have, because the trace runs the whole way from goods in to the signature at the door.
It adds to a Warehouse or Complete plan, because it is the pick that takes stock off. Month to month, cancel anytime, and no build cost. If it saves one pallet of short-dated stock a month it has paid for itself several times over, which is a low bar for anyone moving dated goods.
A 20-minute demo on real data. If it fits how you work, you're live the same week, for the price of a phone plan, not a software project.