Stock Rotation Question - Expiration Date vs Ship By Date

Hi,

I work for an E commerce company that also does 3pl.

We are working on our food safety policy and currently are working on our stock rotation policy.

We had a question about the policy - we have a template we are working with to note the expiration date for purposes of FIFO stock rotation.  However we only receive, store, and ship.  

So our question is, does the policy need to state a "ship by date"? as opposed to expiration date?

Second question, if the ship by date is not available, are we able to use the expiration date in our policy and stock rotation log?

Thank you in advance as always!

The logistic companies we work with use a ship by date vs product expiration date - the ship by date is always much sooner than the expiration date - this way they are not shipping (classified as) dead product.

Thanks for the response, if the client does not provide us a ship by date, are we able to extrapolate on on our end based on the expiration date?

I ask because we only fulfill shelf stable goods with years left on the expiration date, and we aren't always provided a ship by date by the clients.

I would use and track both.  It is complicated, but the most assured way you have proper rotation and traceability.

You could also apply your own internal ship by dates based on the item's shelf-life and expiration date.  Typically, retail customers want something around 50% or greater of product shelf-life by the time they receive it.