Batch and lot traceability for small manufacturers: a starting system

A complaint arrives about one pack. Two questions follow at once. Which raw material went into it? And where did the rest of that batch go?

If finding the answers takes three days, ten phone calls and a search through old WhatsApp chats, you do not have traceability yet.

You have hope.

A small factory does not need expensive software to fix this. It needs a lot numbering scheme, a habit of writing down six things at the right moments, and a code on every pack that leads back to those records.

The priests at Haridwar are known for registers that trace a family back through many generations. A factory needs much less than that. It needs one step back and one step forward, for every batch, every time.

Let us build that in five steps.

The terms first

1. A batch or lot is a quantity made under the same conditions: the same materials, the same line, the same shift. The FSSAI Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020 (compendium dated 3 April 2025) define the lot or batch number as the mark by which the food can be traced in manufacture and identified in distribution. That definition works for any product.
2. Tracing back means going from a finished batch to the raw material lots and suppliers behind it.
3. Tracking forward means going from a batch to every customer who received it.
4. "One-up, one-down" is the minimum GS1 asks of each business in its Global Traceability Standard (Release 2.0, August 2017): trace back to your direct suppliers and forward to your direct customers.
5. Critical tracking events are the moments that matter, such as receiving, making, packing and shipping. For each one, the same standard describes the data to keep as who, what, where, when and why.

Step 1: choose a lot numbering scheme

Pick one scheme for the whole factory and never change it casually. We have three common choices.

1. Date, line and shift. For example, 261002L2B for 2 October 2026, line 2, shift B. Anyone can read it, and it gives one batch per line per shift.
2. Day of the year. The same date becomes 26275, because 2 October is the 275th day of 2026. It is short, which helps on small packs, but staff need a chart to read it.
3. A running number per product, such as 0001, 0002 and so on. It is the simplest to print, but it means nothing without the register.

I prefer the first one for most small factories, because a new operator can read it without a chart.

Whichever you pick, follow five rules.

1. A batch number never repeats for the same product. The GS1 General Specifications (Release 26.0, January 2026) make the brand owner and the manufacturer responsible for this, even when the same product is made at two sites.
2. Keep to capital letters and digits. Avoid spaces, slashes and look-alike letters such as O and I.
3. Keep it within 20 characters. That is the limit for a batch number in a GS1 barcode, under Application Identifier (10).
4. Decide what one batch means and write it down.
5. Print the same number on the unit and on the carton.

Here is a rule of the trade worth remembering. The size of your batch is the size of your recall. One batch for a whole day across three lines means a fault on one line brings back the whole day.

Smaller batches mean more records, and fewer goods to call back.

Step 2: record six things at the right moments

If I walked into a small factory to check its records, I would look at the second row first. It is easy to note what came in and what went out, and forget which lot of material went into which batch. Without that row the chain breaks in the middle, and you cannot trace back at all.

Step 3: put the batch on the pack where it can be read

A record is only useful if the pack in a customer's hand leads back to it. Here is where the batch number should appear.

1. On every unit, in plain characters. For prepackaged food this is the law: regulation 5(9) of the FSSAI Labelling and Display Regulations says a batch, code or lot number shall be declared on the label.
2. On every carton, together with the product name, quantity and date.
3. In a barcode on the carton, if your buyers scan. A GS1-128 barcode can hold the GTIN, the batch under AI (10) and a date such as the production date under AI (11) or the expiry date under AI (17). Then the warehouse captures the batch without typing it. Our lesson on GS1 barcodes in India explains these codes.
4. On the pallet, where an SSCC links the whole pallet to its dispatch record.

How the number gets printed matters too. A batch coder on pre-printed labels, a thermal transfer overprint, or a label printed on demand all work. A handwritten number in marker smudges and invites errors.

If you print batch labels on a thermal printer, read our lesson on direct thermal or thermal transfer first. A batch number that fades in the godown is no batch number at all.

Step 4: run it on a spreadsheet first

I would start every small factory on a spreadsheet. It is cheap, everyone can use it, and it forces you to decide which fields you need before you pay for software.

Make one workbook with four sheets.

1. Receipts, one row per lot received.
2. Production, one row per batch, plus a small table listing each raw material lot and quantity used in that batch.
3. Dispatch, one row per batch per invoice.
4. Complaints, one row per complaint.

The batch number is the column that joins them. Use drop-down lists for products, lines and customers so spellings match. Give each sheet one owner, and fill it daily, not at the end of the week.

A spreadsheet has limits, and it is better to know them early. It struggles when several people edit at once, when batches split and merge, and when customers want lot-wise certificates on demand. That is the time for software.

We run SAP Business One at Jagannath Polymers. My view is that the software only makes the records faster. It cannot decide what to record. That decision is yours, and a spreadsheet is the cheapest place to make it.

Step 5: test it with a recall drill

We only know a system works when we try to use it under pressure. For food businesses covered by FSSAI's recall rules, a recall plan is a legal requirement. FSSAI's Guidelines for Food Recall, issued under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Recall Procedure) Regulations, 2017, ask food businesses to keep an up-to-date recall plan. They also ask for distribution records that cover supplier and distributor details, batch codes, lot numbers and complete traceability from raw material to finished goods.

For any factory, food or not, here is a simple drill.

1. Pick a real batch from last month without warning the team.
2. Start a timer.
3. Trace back: list every raw material lot and supplier behind that batch.
4. Track forward: list every customer, invoice and quantity that received it.
5. Check the balance. Quantity made should equal quantity dispatched, plus stock in hand, plus samples, plus rejects. Any gap is a hole in your records.
6. Stop the timer. Write down the time taken and every place you got stuck.
7. Fix one gap, then repeat the drill in a few months and try to beat your own time.

I would not set a target before the first drill. Your first time is your baseline.

Even a slow first time is useful, because now you know where the holes are.

Common mistakes

1. One batch number per day for every line.
2. No record of which raw material lot went into which batch.
3. Reusing short numbers such as B1 and B2 every month.
4. Printing the batch only on the carton. Once the carton is opened, the link to the units is lost.
5. Mixing reworked or returned goods into a new batch without noting it.
6. Keeping records in notebooks that nobody can search.

Here is the honest limit of what labels can do. A label carries the batch number, but it cannot create traceability. If nobody writes down the lot at receipt and at issue, the best printed code points to an empty page.

Labels and printed codes are made by Jagannath Labels, our group's label company, so this is the part we can help with. Pick last month's biggest batch and try the drill this week. If the codes on your packs turn out to be part of the problem, tell us about it through the contact page.