Shelf Life Management, Does it stop after study is completed?

As part of the product development process, samples of approved products are placed into different storage conditions based upon the requirements of the type of product. These storage conditions may be in a freezer, refrigerator, or at ambient temperature. After reviewing the quality and/or food safety criteria on a monthly basis (may be more frequent for short shelf life products such as produce or refrigerated products), a determination is made as to the expiration date. The shelf life of the products are captured in specifications or master guidance procedures to direct the coding of goods during manufacture. The shelf life of the finished goods as well as the ingredients are captured in the inventory management systems to assure prompt usage or distribution of goods. The Key to good management of inventory is the usage of “FiFo”, First in, First out. Even with great inventory management systems, there still is a need to monitor the quality of goods. Two Key Metrics that can be used are product evaluations and customer complaints. Periodically reviews of goods taken from the end of the supply chain can identity issues that may be resulting in the reduction of sales. The customer complaints can identify “hot spots” in the supply chain that may be adversely affecting the product which can direct the organization to conduct product evaluations. At times, an organization may have to use ingredients approaching the end of their shelf life. The finished goods that these ingredients are used in could be flagged within the customer complaint system to see if there are any adverse reactions from customer or identify the need to restrict the usage of ingredients to a shorter portion of their shelf life. Share-ify provides the necessary functionality to greatly enhance the customer’s delight with their purchases.