Best-Before Date (MHD)
The best-before date (MHD) indicates how long a food product retains its specific properties such as taste, smell and nutritional value when stored correctly. In the ERP system it is tracked per batch and drives First-Expired-First-Out and blocking rules.
The best-before date (MHD, German "Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum") is the date up to which a packaged food product retains its specific properties – such as taste, smell, colour, texture and nutritional value – when stored properly and correctly. It is a quality date, not a safety date: after the best-before date a product is not automatically spoiled or harmful to health; the manufacturer simply guarantees full quality only up to that day. In the EU, the "best before …" statement is legally required under the Food Information Regulation (FIC/LMIV).
In inventory management and the ERP system, the best-before date is a central attribute of shelf-life-managed items. As a rule it does not attach to the individual unit but to the batch: all units of a production or delivery quantity share the same date. Using the best-before date, systems control the picking sequence (First-Expired-First-Out), automatically block expired or critical stock, and provide reports on at-risk stock value before goods become unsellable.
At a glance
- A quality date, not an expiry date – "best before" guarantees properties, not safety
- Required in the EU under the LMIV/FIC, except for e.g. salt, sugar, vinegar, spirits
- Tracked per batch in the ERP and the trigger for FEFO picking
- Not to be confused with the use-by date ("use by") on highly perishable goods
- The basis for automatic blocked stock, write-downs and remaining-shelf-life reports
What the best-before date (MHD) actually states
The best-before date answers the question: until when does the manufacturer guarantee the full quality of a food product? It refers explicitly to the unopened package under the storage conditions specified by the manufacturer. If a particular temperature is required, it must be stated together with the date – for example "best before +7 °C by …". Once opened, the statement loses its validity.
The wording matters: where an exact day is given, "best before" applies up to and including that day. For a shelf life of more than three months, month and year are sufficient; for more than 18 months, the year alone is enough. This explains why ERP systems handle the best-before date flexibly as a date field and must always normalise it internally to a concrete reference day for picking.
Distinguishing best-before, use-by and production date
The use-by date ("use by") is a safety date for microbiologically highly perishable foods such as minced meat or fresh fish. After it has passed, the goods may no longer be sold and should no longer be consumed – unlike the best-before date. The production date, in turn, merely documents the moment of manufacture and is often tracked in parallel in the ERP to calculate the remaining shelf life.
How the best-before date works in the ERP system
For an ERP system to work with the best-before date, the item is flagged as shelf-life-managed in the item master. At goods receipt, the system captures the best-before date for each batch – manually, by scanning the GS1 barcode, or via an EDI dispatch advice. From that moment on, every stock quantity is tracked not only by quantity but also by date: the system knows which quantity with which best-before date lies at which storage location.
During picking, the FEFO logic (First Expired, First Out) applies: the system proposes the batch with the shortest remaining-shelf-life date for outbound first, so that older goods leave the warehouse first. At the same time, minimum remaining shelf lives can be defined per customer or channel – for example, a retail partner only accepts goods with at least 60 percent shelf life remaining. If a batch falls below this threshold, it is automatically blocked for that customer.
Blocked stock, alerts and write-downs
Batches that have expired or are close to expiry move into blocked stock and are barred from regular sale. Reports show at-risk stock value graded by remaining shelf life, so the planner can initiate actions such as discounting or return in good time. When goods actually expire, the system supports the value write-down and the removal from stock.
Why the best-before date (MHD) matters economically
Cleanly maintained best-before data directly reduces write-downs and stock losses: those who ship out by FEFO sell goods before they become unsellable, instead of pulling fresh batches forward and letting older ones expire. In low-margin sectors such as food retail, beverages, cosmetics or dietary supplements, this makes a noticeable difference to profitability.
A second lever is compliance with trading partners and authorities. Large retail chains contractually stipulate minimum remaining shelf lives; if goods are delivered with too short a best-before date, returns and contractual penalties loom. Complete batch and best-before documentation is also the basis for traceability under EU law – in the event of a recall, a business must prove within hours which batch with which best-before date went to which customer.
Best-before date and batch management: how they interact
The best-before date is practically never useful without batch management, because the date is an attribute of the batch. Only the batch makes stock separable to the exact date: two pallets of the same item with different best-before dates are, from an inventory management perspective, different stock positions even though they are the same SKU. Stock management must therefore calculate in multiple dimensions – quantity, storage location, batch and best-before date together.
In practice, the best-before date is often read directly from the GS1-128 barcode: application identifier (AI) 15 encodes the best-before date, AI 10 the batch number. When warehouse staff scan this code, the ERP system takes over date and batch in one step, which avoids capture errors and safeguards traceability.
DACH specifics and legal framework
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the EU requirements of the LMIV/FIC essentially apply to the best-before date (in Switzerland mirrored via the Ordinance on Foodstuffs and Utility Articles). For certain products no best-before statement is required, for example fresh fruit and vegetables, table salt, sugar in solid form, vinegar and spirits. Special rules apply to wine and similar beverages.
For ERP practice this means: not every food item requires a best-before date, and the system should be able to decide per item whether a best-before date must be captured. Also relevant is the distinction from the debate on food waste – an expired best-before date does not automatically mean disposal. Some businesses therefore use tiered best-before reports to steer goods near expiry deliberately into promotions or to recycling partners rather than writing them off.
Example
Example: beverage wholesaler manages best-before via FEFO
A mid-sized beverage and delicatessen wholesaler supplies restaurants and retail. At goods receipt the warehouse scans the GS1-128 code of each pallet; the ERP system takes over batch number and best-before date automatically. For one retail customer, a remaining shelf life of at least 75 percent is defined contractually.
When a batch of fruit juice falls below this threshold, the system blocks it for that customer but flags it in the remaining-shelf-life report as "action-ready". The planner bundles it with other short-dated goods into a discount package for the restaurant trade. This way the batch leaves the warehouse in good time, instead of being written off in four weeks.
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