Batch numbers and best-before dates: keeping every run traceable
A practical look at recording batches, printing packaged and best-before dates, and reprinting labels for a product run.
Why a batch number helps
When you make the same sausage or cut every week, a batch number is how you tell one run from the next. If you need to answer a question about a specific package, the batch number on the label points back to the day it was made and the recipe used.
How CAIS Labels builds the batch number
In the product details step you set a product code prefix, the batch date and a sequence number. CAIS Labels combines them into a batch number, for example SAU-261004-01, and prints it on the label. Saved labels are grouped by product and batch, so you can reopen a previous run and reprint it.
Packaged and best-before dates
You enter the packaged date and choose how many days after it the best-before date should fall. CAIS Labels does the date arithmetic and prints both dates in English and French. It does not decide what shelf life is safe for your product. That decision, and its basis, stays with you.
Reprinting without retyping
Because labels are saved, a reprint is a matter of reopening the label and printing again, rather than rebuilding it. Printing is unlimited under the one-time purchase, so there is no per-label cost to reprinting a run.