How to trace lot-level inventory on Starch
Lot-level traceability means knowing exactly where every batch of product came from, where it went, and what happened to it in between — down to the ingredient lot, the production run, the co-packer that made it, and the customer or retailer that received it. If a supplier calls with a contamination alert, or an auditor from SQF, BRC, or a major retailer asks you to demonstrate chain of custody for a specific lot, you need that answer in minutes, not days.
What this looks like in practice varies. Some operations track lots primarily through their co-packer and 3PL. Others run their own production and need traceability woven into quality holds, yield reconciliation, and FSMA 204 Key Data Elements. The complexity scales with how many hands touch the product between raw ingredient and end customer.
On Starch, the end state is a dashboard where any lot number pulls up its full one-up-one-down chain — supplier, production batch, finished goods, outbound shipments — and a mock recall runs in minutes instead of requiring a weekend with spreadsheets. Expiration dates surface before they become write-offs. When the audit comes, you open a screen; you don't open a binder. The Lot Tracker app (coming soon — request beta access) is the starting point for this workflow, and operators building adjacent needs like inventory reconciliation or co-packer management can extend from there.
Why it matters
A traceability gap doesn't cost you time — it costs you a retail relationship or a regulatory action. FSMA 204 has defined Key Data Elements and response timelines that spreadsheets were never designed to meet. On the upside, operators who can run a mock recall on demand, share lot documentation with a retailer's food safety team in minutes, and catch expiring inventory before it ships are the ones who keep their shelf space when audits happen and competitors can't respond.
Common pitfalls
The four mistakes that cause the most pain: tracking finished goods lot numbers but not linking them back to the raw ingredient lots that went in — so a supplier recall still requires manual forensics. Keeping lot records in the co-packer's spreadsheet rather than your own system, which means you're always chasing someone else's data. Conflating 'lot number' and 'batch date' inconsistently across records, which breaks chain-of-custody logic during an audit. And treating expiration date management as a warehouse problem rather than a traceability field — so product ships LIFO instead of FEFO and short-dated inventory becomes a customer complaint.
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