Remaining shelf life for imported grocery: what buyers should lock before the first drop

A lot can taste right in a sample room and still be turned away on the date. Transit, a wait for a vessel, and the gap between production and sailing all use life the plant has already printed. Lock the mark and the receipt rule before the first purchase order.

Written for supermarket category managers, private-label and controlled-brand managers, and QSR or foodservice buyers. Shiiv Imports Pty Ltd trades as Shiiv Imports. We are a sourcing agent, importer and private-label builder, not a manufacturer. The partner plant makes the food and holds the shelf-life work. The date, the storage line and your receipt rule belong on one file, beside the spec pack and the lead time from sample to first purchase order.

What the date on the pack is allowed to say

Date marking under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code sits in Standard 1.2.5. On the FSANZ use-by and best-before page, updated 25 February 2025, a use-by date is for health or safety, and food must not be sold after it. A best-before date is the date up to which the food stays fully marketable and keeps any claimed qualities, if the pack stays intact and is stored as the label requires. Food may still be sold after a best-before date if it is fit for human consumption. The label uses the words "Best Before" or "Use By".

Bread with a shelf life under seven days may use a baked-on or baked-for date. A best-before date two years or more after production need not be printed. Past three months, the mark shows at least the month and the year. A shorter life needs the day and the month. A storage condition the date depends on goes on the label under Standard 1.2.6. FSANZ says the supplier places the date. On own-brand the figure still comes from the factory's shelf-life work. We check it against the specification and the artwork. We do not lengthen a use-by date to catch a late sailing.

The Code does not set a receipt percentage

Minimum life on receipt is a buyer's rule. Standard 1.2.5 sets the date mark. It does not set a percentage of life, or a number of days, that must remain at the warehouse. Each banner, wholesaler and QSR group writes its own.

Get the rule in writing before the purchase order. Name the channel and the day it is judged: vessel arrival, warehouse receipt, or the day the store is ranged. A supermarket warehouse and a foodservice kitchen can hold different numbers. We do not keep a house percentage. We set your rule beside the plant's total life and say whether the timetable can meet it.

Where the days go

Total life runs from production to the date mark, stored as the label says. Remaining life is what is left on a named day. Transit, a production slot and a shutdown sit inside that span. About 90 days is typical from a locked brief to the first shelf-ready order at an Australian warehouse, when the maker is known and the ocean leg is shorter. See the lead-time FAQ. Those days are already taken from the printed date.

An illustration, not a market figure: nine months of studied life, with three used by the voyage and the booking, leaves six on arrival, and the receipt rule applies to the six. Agree the study with the sample. Frozen goods need their own calendar, a reefer for the ex-factory week, and a warehouse that can receive them frozen. A plant closure belongs in the same sum. See factory shutdown calendars.

What to write into the brief

• The proposed mark, use-by or best-before, and the total life behind it.
• The storage band, in the words that will be printed.
• The receipt rule, the day it is judged, and the channel.
• Whether a trial lot may carry different remaining life.
• The lot code and the date on the shipper, so the Certificate of Analysis can match.

A Certificate of Analysis for another pack size does not clear this lot. On a private-label pack the recipe, the artwork and the date line are signed together. See the FSANZ FAQ and the quality page. The plant owns the shelf-life facts. Where a partner factory holds HACCP, or a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, the certificate belongs to that site and scope. We work with factories that hold GFSI-benchmarked certifications where the program requires it. Shiiv Imports holds ISO 9001 for sourcing, supplier selection and the file. ISO 9001 is not a shelf-life study and not a plant food-safety certificate. We do not name major-chain private-label clients.

A retail jar and a foodservice pack

A retail jar and a foodservice tin can share a recipe and still differ on portion and on life after opening. Apply the retail receipt rule to foodservice only when that is agreed. A catalogue line or a controlled brand can ship on an existing export pack once the mark and the storage line are checked. Own-brand waits for artwork.

Before you book the slot

Record the mark, total life, storage line, receipt rule and the day it is measured. If the timetable misses the rule, change the sailing, the pack or the rule before production. Send product, pack, channel and the receipt rule with a sourcing brief, or a private-label brief for own-brand. We reply the same business day on how the file is shared under NDA. Email sales@shiv-impex.com.

Shiiv Imports Insights. Shiiv Imports Pty Ltd (ABN 15 158 243 442 / ACN 158 243 442). Trading name Shiiv Imports. Public email sales@shiv-impex.com. Cities: Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Ahmedabad. Date marking: FSANZ (page updated 25 February 2025) and Standard 1.2.5 (compilation in force 3 June 2021).