The difference between DLC DLUO DDM is essential for any e-tailer or logistician handling perishable products. The SLED refers to sanitary safety, the MDD to product quality, and the DLUO is the former term for the DDM. A clear understanding of these concepts helps to secure sales, improve perishable stock management and avoid logistical errors, thanks to improved traceability, the FEFO method and automation.
The DLC DLUO DDM difference has a direct impact on your business. It determines what you can sell, what you need to withdraw, how you need to organize your perishable stock management and what controls you need to put in place to avoid errors.
- Understanding the Basics: Best Before, Use By, and Sell By
- What Are the Key Differences for Your E-Commerce Business?
- Optimizing logistics for products with short shelf lives
- Automate date management with an omnichannel WMS
- Better date management means better control of your logistics
For an e-tailer or logistician, the subject is more than just labeling. It involves e-commerce food safety, traceability, batch rotation, order preparation and customer satisfaction. Poor date management can lead to health hazards, non-compliance or lost margins.
The economic stakes are far from marginal: according to Eurostat, in 2025, the European Union generated 58.2 million tonnes of food waste in 2023, or around 130 kg per capita.
Understanding the basics: BBD, UBD and DDM
Before discussing logistics, we need to establish the correct definitions. The difference between the best-by date, use-by date, and sell-by date isn’t just a theoretical distinction—it changes the rules for sales, how products are stored, and the level of vigilance expected in the warehouse. To properly manage perishable products, your teams need to know exactly what each label means.
The Use-By Date (DLC): A Health Consideration
The “use-by” date applies to foods that are highly perishable from a microbiological standpoint. It is labeled with the phrase “use by.” Once this date has passed, the product may become hazardous to health.
For professionals, the consequence is immediate: a product with an expired use-by date must no longer be marketed. The rule applies to purchasing, storage, preparation and dispatch. In e-commerce, this means thinking in terms of the actual delivery date, not just the preparation date.
In other words, the best-by date requires strict batch management. It is essential to be able to identify at-risk products, hold them in time, and prevent any shipment of an item with a best-by window that is too short.
From Best Before to Minimum Durability Date: What Has Changed
The “best-by date” has been replaced by the “minimum durability date.” This is now the correct regulatory term. The change is significant for your product labeling, procedures, and product communications.
The date of minimum durability is expressed as “best before”. Once the date has passed, the product can still be consumed if the packaging is intact and has not been altered. However, it may have lost its taste, texture, effectiveness or nutritional qualities.
This is the key to understanding the difference between the “best before” date and the “use by” date: the “use by” date relates to safety, while the “best before” date relates to quality. For your business, this means two different approaches to monitoring, inventory turnover, and business decisions.
What are the key differences for your e-commerce business?
Once the definitions are established, they must be translated into concrete decisions. For an e-commerce business, the issue isn’t just legal: you need to know what to sell, what to hold back, what to promote, and how to maintain a consistent customer experience. That’s where mastering expiration dates becomes a real performance issue.
Consumer vigilance confirms the importance of the subject: according to theEFSA in its Eurobarometer 2025, 7 out of 10 Europeans say they are personally interested in food safety, and 46% cite it as one of the factors influencing their food choices.
Health Risks vs. Loss of Quality
When a product’s best-by date has passed, you’re dealing with an issue of e-commerce food safety andfood hygiene. The risk is to health. When a product’s use-by date has passed, you’re dealing with an issue of perceived quality. The product may still be safe to eat, but it no longer necessarily guarantees the expected level of quality.
This distinction changes the wayperishable inventory is managed. A batch with a short best-by date requires close monitoring. A batch with a best-by date that is approaching can still be sold, removed from inventory, or allocated to a specific channel, provided its actual condition is known.
To minimize errors, your teams must be able to answer three questions:
- is this lot still for sale?
- on which channel can it be broadcast ;
- which customer promise remains compatible with its date.
Legal Framework for Sales and Promotions
The legal framework is stricter regarding the Best-By Date than the Use-By Date. Products past their Best-By Date may not be sold. Products past their Use-By Date may still be sold if they are safe to consume, their packaging is intact, and product information is properly managed.
For a retailer, this difference opens up a lever foroptimizing food stocks. Short-dated products can be directed towards promotional operations, destocking circuits or more intelligent management of unsold stock. This helps prevent waste and protect margins.
But this flexibility requires real discipline. The more you work with short shelf lives, the more you need to masterthe labeling of perishable products, best-before and use-by regulations, and consistency across your inventory, sales channels, and logistics rules.
Optimizing Logistics for Products with Short Shelf Lives
Understanding the rule is not enough. It must then be applied without error, even when several batches coexist with different dates. This is where logistics play a decisive role: good organization secures sales, reduces waste and protects customer satisfaction.
The importance of batch traceability
Visit batch traceability is essential when managing perishable products. On receipt, each batch must be recorded with its date. In storage, each quantity must remain attached to a location. In preparation, the operator needs to know which batch to pick.
This traceability in food logistics supports both day-to-day operations and incident management. In the event of a supplier alert or recall, you must be able to immediately identify the units still in stock, the shipped orders, and the affected customers.
Reliable traceability makes it possible, in particular, to:
- secure preparations on the right batches;
- quickly isolate an anomalous batch;
- better arbitration of short-dated products;
- strengthen your logistics compliance.
The FEFO method: First Expired, First Out
For perishable products, the FIFO method method quickly shows its limitations. FIFO (First In, First Out) means that what goes in first, goes out first. However, two batches may be received at different times and have very different dates.
The method FEFO method, or First Expired First Out, consists in taking out first the batch that expires the earliest. This is the most appropriate logic for managing expiry dates and reducing losses.
FEFO improves inventory turnover, reduces waste, and safeguards the customer experience. It is particularly useful for e-commerce food warehousing, fresh products, and any items whose value is influenced by their expiration date. Provided, of course, that this rule is applied automatically in the warehouse.
Automate date management with an omnichannel WMS
As volumes increase, manual checks are no longer sufficient. A spreadsheet can list dates, but it does not guarantee proper inventory allocation or sound decision-making at the time of picking. To secure your operations in the long term, you need a more structured approach.
This is where the link between WHO, WMS and TMS becomes useful. TheOMS (Order Management System) centralizes orders and directs the right flows. The WMS (Warehouse Management System) controls batches, dates, locations and preparation rules. The TMS (Transport Management System) helps to adapt the carrier and shipping method to the time constraint, which is essential for sensitive or short-dated products.
Best-before alerts and virtual inventory management
A stock management software or WMS software for the food industry allows you to associate each product with a batch, a date, a location and a release rule. This makes it possible to automate expiry alerts, block certain batches and distinguish between physical stock and stock actually available for sale.
This concept of virtual inventory is essential in an omnichannel environment. A batch that is physically present in the warehouse is not necessarily available for sale across all channels. It may be too small for standard delivery, reserved for a clearance sale, or excluded from a service level agreement.
Reducing Waste and Maximizing Profitability
Automated date management helps reduce food waste, limit avoidable disposals, and improve profitability. You can identify at-risk batches earlier, make decisions faster, and better sell off products that still have value.
It also reduces picking errors. The operator is guided to the right location, the right batch and the right picking order. So you avoid shipping the wrong product, while streamlining warehouse operations.
With an omnichannel WMS, the management of perishable products no longer relies on individual vigilance. It is based on reliable, traceable and reproducible rules, and is therefore more compatible with the growth and scalability of operations.
Better Date Management Means Better Logistics Management
Understanding the difference between “DLC,” “DLUO,” and “DDM ” is essential, but the real challenge is operational. You need to transform a labeling rule into a system capable of ensuring the safety of sales, order fulfillment, and shipping.
To achieve this, three levers are decisive: batch traceability, a suitable rotation rule such as FEFO logistics, and a tool capable of automating alerts, blockages and arbitrages by batch.
With Shippingbo, you can centralize your flows and manage your perishable products more reliably, thanks to a WMS connected to your e-commerce ecosystem. With batch tracking, real-time inventory management, release rules and more reliable preparation, you can reduce errors while improving logistics profitability.
Request a Shippingbo demo to see how you can automate your perishable inventory management, secure your shipments and reduce logistics waste:
FAQ
Yes, the “minimum durability date” has replaced the term “best-by date.” This change is intended to better reflect the product’s actual condition: after this date, the product may still be safe to eat, even if its quality may have declined.
No. A product with an expired best-by date cannot be sold. It is prohibited and may pose a health risk to consumers.
A WMS allows you to record dates upon receipt, associate each product with a lot, apply rotation rules such as FEFO, and automatically isolate lots nearing their expiration dates.
Glossary
Best Before Date
Best-by date: the date until which a product retains its expected qualities under proper storage conditions.
DLC
Best-by date: the date after which a product may become hazardous to health.
DLUO
Best-by date: a former regulatory term replaced by the DDM.
FEFO
First Expired, First Out: a logistics method that involves prioritizing the removal of the batch with the earliest expiration date.
FIFO
First In, First Out: a stock rotation method in which items are removed from inventory in the order they were received.
Batch Traceability
The ability to track a product based on its lot number, date, movements, and history within the warehouse.
OMS
Order Management System: software that centralizes and coordinates orders across different sales channels.
WMS
Warehouse Management System: software that manages warehouse operations, inventory, locations, batches, and order fulfillment.
TMS
Transport Management System: software that helps manage carrier selection and transportation execution.