Business Central for Food & Beverage - Lot Tracking and Recalls
By Marc Braune, Managing Partner
Business Central supports food and beverage manufacturers with lot tracking and recall readiness, but effective traceability and recall speed depend on configuration. Lot genealogy, forward and backward traceability, and the ability to run a mock recall in minutes are set up, not delivered by default.
Lot tracking and recalls
Food traceability law — FSMA and its Traceability Rule in the US, Regulation 178/2002 in the EU — requires one-step-back and one-step-forward traceability at minimum. In practice a manufacturer needs more: full lot/batch genealogy, allergen and specification management, shelf-life and FEFO handling, and the ability to simulate a recall to prove the trace is complete and fast. A recall that takes days because the data is scattered is a finding waiting to happen.
How Business Central fits
Business Central provides item tracking (lot and serial), which is configured into end-to-end genealogy and combined with quality and expiry controls. Traceability performance is then validated by mock recalls. See batch and lot management in Business Central for how the tracking is built.
Independent architecture governance can pressure-test the traceability design against a realistic recall scenario before an inspector does.
Frequently asked questions
- How does Business Central support a food recall?
- Through lot/batch genealogy and one-up/one-down traceability: from a suspect lot, forward-trace every customer shipment and backward-trace every ingredient and supplier. Recall speed depends on this being configured and rehearsed via mock recalls.
- What food regulations shape the ERP setup?
- In the US, FSMA (incl. the Traceability Rule) and FDA record-keeping; in the EU, Regulation 178/2002 (one-step-back/one-step-forward traceability) plus allergen and labelling law. The ERP must make these traces fast and complete.