SOLUTIONS · FOOD & BEVERAGE
F&B operators run against a clock no other industry has — shelf life. Every degree-hour above the limit bleeds saleable days. Every recall starts an FDA 24-hour reporting clock. Every supplier audit — BRC, IFS, SQF, GLOBALG.A.P. — sits on a separate spreadsheet. The shelf-life remaining, the cold-chain trace, the supplier audit cycle, the composite-lot tree, the commercial order on top — they live in five systems that don't reconcile. TradeOS holds them on one record. Six sub-segments: fresh produce, frozen and seafood, dairy, specialty premium, beverages and spirits, bulk commodities.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Food & beverage covers any consumable shipped across borders — held together by one thread. Every other industry operates against an arrival deadline; F&B operates against a use-by deadline that started ticking at production. The first three sub-segments below are perishable and cold-chain heavy; the last three are shelf-stable with their own distinct constraints.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs — shipped within 3–30 day shelf life. Phytosanitary certs at origin and destination. GLOBALG.A.P. on annual cycle for retail buyers.
Chilled · 2–8°C typicalDefining constraintDays, not weeks. Daily decision-making, daily re-pricing.
Cold chain critical: −18°C frozen, −2 to 4°C chilled. Sanitary certs — USDA FSIS, EU veterinary, halal / kosher per destination. HACCP plans travel with the lot.
Frozen · −18°C or belowDefining constraintA single excursion can disqualify the entire lot — destination-side veterinary inspection.
Fresh, long-life, powders, cheeses. EU dairy hygiene at origin; country-specific import licenses at destination — especially China, Russia, GCC. Short shelf life on fresh formats; long on powders.
Chilled · 0–4°C fresh formatsDefining constraintImport license per destination — renewal cycles can be 12–24 months.
Italian EVOO, French wines, single-origin coffee, artisanal cheeses, specialty teas. Country-of-origin is the value proposition. PDO / PGI protections enforced at destination.
Ambient · provenance-gradedDefining constraintProvenance chain — mill, press, region, vintage all carry monetary value.
Non-alcoholic and alcoholic. Excise tax per destination, age verification, labeling regulations (allergens, country of origin, alcohol %), tariff rate quotas, suspended-duty regimes.
Ambient · excise-bondedDefining constraintExcise compliance per destination — a mislabeled lot loses more to fines than to freight.
Grains, oilseeds, sugar, coffee / cocoa, processed shelf-stable. Weight-based pricing tied to index references; futures hedging on commodities; nutritional panel compliance on packaged.
Mixed · bulk + packagedDefining constraintIndex pricing + nutritional compliance — two parallel records that have to agree at invoice.
SHELF-LIFE REMAINING · PROJECTED
LOT-2026-0418·
18 pallets · 9,720 bottles · 500ml · harvest 2025 · cold extraction < 27°C
19 attributed events · cryptographic chain · recall trace in ≤ 4h to all customers
RECALL READINESS
Trace this lot to every customer in under four hours.
12 lots · 4 customers across 3 jurisdictions · constituent lot tree resolved.
≤ 4h
Margin curve adjusted for projected remaining shelf-life at destination
PROJECTED MARGIN CURVE
Per-bottle gross margin vs. days remaining at sale.
ATLAS · RECOMMENDATION
Hold full 9,720 bottles for premium retail — projected 19.4 mo at DC clears the > 18 mo cutoff with 1.4 mo margin. Recommend re-evaluating at week 12 post-receipt vs. sell-through.
THE PROBLEM
F&B fails differently. The shipment looks fine on the tracking page; the shelf-life isn't. The supplier QMS has the recall data, distribution has another half of it, customer-side records have the rest — and none of them stitch back to a single lot in under a day. The seams are where holds, recalls, and lot write-offs come from.
18 days in transit. 21-day shelf life. Arrival looks fine on the tracking page. Customer rejects on receipt — full lot loss, no insurance recourse, broken retail relationship. EDMA projects remaining shelf-life live and re-routes before the lot becomes unsellable.
Supplier QMS has it. Distribution system has it. Customer-shipped lots are in another. No single trace, no constituent lot tree. Four-day investigation, FDA timer ticking at 24 hours. EDMA resolves the affected lot list and customer notifications in under four hours.
Audit calendar lives in a separate tool. Operations doesn't get the alert. Product fails compliance at destination — $80K lot quarantined, retail relationship damaged, audit remediation now urgent rather than routine. EDMA blocks new POs against an expired-audit supplier at order entry.
ONE WORKSPACE · LOT + PROVENANCE
The lot is what gets recalled. The lot is what carries shelf-life. The lot is what gets factored. Not the SKU, not the PO, not the order. EDMA holds the lot record with source farm or facility, manufacturing data, cold-chain trace, shelf-life projection, supplier audit status, distribution chain, audit log, and the allergen / dietary cert panel — including the constituent lot tree for composite products, so recall trace recurses through it in one query.
SOURCE / FACILITY
QUALITY DATA · CHEM PANEL + SENSORY
COLD CHAIN · MAERSK CAPTAIN PETER + ON-BOARD DATALOGGER
DOCUMENT CHAIN · ATTACHED TO LOT
DISTRIBUTION · 4 CUSTOMERS · 3 JURISDICTIONS
RECENT AUDIT LOG
PER-LOT ECONOMICS · MARGIN × SHELF-LIFE
For F&B the price a lot can hold depends on how much shelf life is left at the moment it's sold. EDMA holds the live shelf-life projection on the lot record and prices each channel against it — premium retail at day 60, standard retail at day 120, foodservice below day 30, liquidation below day 14. The markdown allowance is reserved per lot, not per quarter.
LOT-2026-0418 · 9,720 bottles EVOO · channel margin by shelf-life remaining
1PREMIUM RETAIL
Whole Foods DE · specialty aisle
Cutoff: > 18 mo remaining at DC
19.4 mo → clears with 1.4 mo marginRECOMMENDED ALLOCATION
4,320 btl
44% of lot · full premium hold
2STANDARD RETAIL
Edeka / Rewe · grocery aisle
Cutoff: 6–18 mo remaining
19.4 mo → eligible but premium is betterRECOMMENDED ALLOCATION
4,680 btl
48% of lot · Edeka + Rewe split
3FOODSERVICE / HORECA
Distributor · restaurants
Cutoff: < 6 mo remaining · rolling
Held for late-cycle reallocationRECOMMENDED ALLOCATION
720 btl
7% · HORECA consolidator
4LIQUIDATION
Discounter / clearance
Below day 14 · emergency only
Not in this lot’s planRECOMMENDED ALLOCATION
0 btl
Lot avoids liquidation cliff
SHELF-LIFE DECAY · PROJECTED MARGIN PER BOTTLE
Atlas reprojects shelf-life at every checkpoint (port, transhipment, customs, DC). When projection slips, channel mix shifts automatically — the lot doesn't sit until margin is already gone. The markdown loss that lives in spreadsheet-managed channel mix gets pulled back into the gross margin line.
DOCUMENT CHAIN · F&B VARIANT
F&B layers sanitary and phytosanitary documents on top of the standard commercial chain — per origin, per destination, per cold-chain class. CoAs, HACCP plans, allergen declarations, organic certs, country registrations, excise docs for beverages. Sixteen documents, six counterparties, one missing endorsement and the lot is on the dock burning shelf-life days. EDMA tracks every required document by counterparty, by ship-to jurisdiction, by lot — no parallel folders, no spreadsheet, no shelf-life bleeding while paper is missing.
CI commercial invoice · PL packing list · BL bill of lading · EUR1 EUR.1 movement / preferential origin · CoA certificate of analysis · chem + sensory · PHY phytosanitary cert · plant-based products · SAN sanitary cert · meat / dairy / seafood (USDA FSIS / EU veterinary) · HC health certificate · destination jurisdiction · HACCP HACCP plan reference at lot · ALL allergen declaration · per SKU · ORG organic certification · USDA Organic / EU Bio / JAS · BRC BRC / IFS / SQF audit per facility · COLD cold-chain datalogger trace & certification · NUT nutrient panel · destination labeling rules (incl. excise docs for spirits).
WORKING CAPITAL
F&B working capital has two pressure points: LCs at sight for international perishable trade, where document discrepancies stall release; and Net 60 retail receivables, where production capital sits tied up while DCs run on their own clocks. EDMA cross-tests every document against the LC at presentation and supports receivables factoring against the QA-released lot record.
LC AT SIGHT · DISCREPANCY RISK
EDMA cross-tests every document against the LC terms, the Incoterm, the destination's phytosanitary / sanitary profile, the lot's BRC/IFS/SQF status, and the issuing bank's known preferences. Discrepancies flagged before paper goes to the issuing bank — not after a 7-day discrepancy clock with a perishable lot bleeding on the dock.
RECEIVABLES FACTORING · RETAIL DC
Lot-backed receivables financing reads from the live record — CoA signed, datalogger clean, BRC current, retail PO confirmed. Factors bid against a verified lot rather than a balance sheet, which compresses cost of capital versus a generic SCF facility.
MARKDOWN & RECALL RESERVE
F&B lots carry two reserves — markdown allowance against the shelf-life curve (typically 2–6% of lot value, channel-dependent) and recall reserve until the regulatory tail clears (90–180 days post-distribution). EDMA holds both on the lot record and releases automatically when audit conditions clear — not in a separate spreadsheet that the controller has to remember to true up at month-end.
PLATFORM FIT
F&B leans on a specific subset of EDMA — Production for lot tracking with shelf-life as a first-class field, Documents for the phytosanitary + sanitary + COO chain, Manufacturers for the supplier audit calendar, Shipments for cold-chain telemetry on every reefer, Communications for cold-chain alerts on WhatsApp. On the AI side, Atlas answers shelf-life and recall questions, Predictive AI projects remaining shelf-life live, Bot Studio enforces audit-expiry-blocks-shipment rules.
ProductionCORE
Shelf-life sits in an Excel column on a different tab. Production holds it as a first-class field on the lot, with multi-stage QC and composite-lot recursion so recall trace doesn't stop at the SKU.
DocumentsCORE
Sanitary in one folder, phytosanitary in another, COO in email. Documents unifies the chain and tests every cert against origin × destination × cold-chain class at presentation — not at customs.
ManufacturersCORE
A supplier audit expires in a spreadsheet nobody owns. Manufacturers blocks new POs at order entry against expired-audit suppliers and assembles the pre-audit pack from the lot record.
ShipmentsCORE
A reefer logs 12°C for six hours and nobody knows until receiving. Shipments enforces cold-chain telemetry as mandatory across reefer / temp-controlled trucking / ambient — Maersk Captain Peter, Hamburg Süd, CMA feeds in via API.
CommunicationsCORE
A datalogger breaches at 2 AM Singapore time and QA reads the email Monday. Communications pages QA on WhatsApp the instant it breaches — translated, ack required within the hour on critical excursions.
AtlasAGENT
QA asks "which lots touched supplier X between Mar 18 and 26?" and the answer takes a half day across four systems. Atlas answers in seconds with citations back to the lot record — same chain a QA director would have assembled by hand.
Predictive AIAGENT
Shelf-life remaining is recalculated quarterly on a spreadsheet, while the lot has been on a hot dock for two weeks. Predictive AI reprojects shelf-life live from temp, humidity, and time at every checkpoint — so channel mix shifts before margin is gone.
Bot StudioRULES
Compliance rules live in a procurement SOP nobody reads on a deadline. Bot Studio enforces them as code: “audit expires in 30d, block new POs;” “recall tagged, surface affected lots in 60s.”
FDA quietly updated the date format on phytosanitary certs and customs holds the container. Document Intelligence OCRs every cert at intake, validates against current FDA / EU spec, and flags format drift before paper goes to the broker.
Legal AIPOST-LAUNCH
A dairy import license renewal runs eight weeks across legal + ops + the local broker. Legal AI drafts country registrations, import licenses, excise filings from the operator's own record — trained on the regulated F&B operator side, not the law firm side.
Supplier portal · farms, processors, packaging
Suppliers send QC results in PDF attachments your QA team rekeys. Supplier portal pulls QC, audit certs, lot photos directly into the lot record — with BRC / IFS / SQF / GLOBALG.A.P. renewal workflow built in.
Logistics portal · cold-chain carriers
Reefer telemetry arrives in a separate carrier portal QA logs into twice a week. Logistics portal flows Maersk Captain Peter, Hamburg Süd, CMA feeds in via API; excursions auto-flag with the affected lot list and QA on-call is paged within seconds.
Client portal · retail buyers
A buyer at Whole Foods raises a ticket asking for lot trace and the email chain runs all week. Client portal gives buyers shelf-life remaining per lot, audit certs, traceability reports on demand — same data, zero tickets.
Auditor portal · read-only
An FDA inspector walks in and the QA team spends three days assembling the audit pack. Auditor portal gives read-only access to lot records, deviation log, CCP records, training matrix — same chain for FDA, BRC surveillance, and retail-side audits.
Regulator portal · FDA / EFSA / etc.
A regulator requests the dossier and finishes a 45-day investigation while ops scrambles to assemble it. Regulator portal serves an inspection-ready dossier on demand — facility profile, audit history, recall record, lot traceability — with pharma-style depth for infant formula and dairy.
SUPPLIER AUDIT CALENDAR · 12-MONTH WINDOW
F&B compliance lives or dies on the supplier audit cycle — BRC, IFS, SQF, and GLOBALG.A.P. each on their own annual or surveillance rhythm, sitting in a different tool from operations. EDMA holds every audit window on one calendar, scopes the pre-audit pack from the lot record, and blocks new POs against a supplier with an expired audit at order entry — before ops can ship a lot that won't clear receiving.
ONE EVENT, FIVE EFFECTS
The cascade is the point. EDMA holds the supplier record, every lot the supplier touched, every customer those lots reached, and the audit trail on the same record — so when a recall lands at the supplier, every dependency propagates inside the hour. Not a four-day investigation across four systems while the FDA clock burns through 24h.
Total elapsed: under four hours from the FDA notice landing to the affected-customer list, the draft notifications, the RMA workflow, and the cryptographically chained audit trail — ready for the 24-hour FDA reporting clock with most of the window still in hand. Without EDMA, the same chain runs through a supplier QMS extract, a distribution export, a customer-record reconciliation, and a hand-built audit log — and the $2–6M insurance claim typically loses its evidentiary spine in the seams between systems.
VS. THE WAY IT'S DONE TODAY
| Capability | TradeOS | TraceGains | FoodLogiQ | ReposiTrak | SAP F&B module | Spreadsheet + email |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lot-level traceability · recall in hours, not days | ≤ 4h | via integrations | retail-side focus | retail-side focus | via custom dev | manual |
| Shelf-life as a first-class field · live projection | ✓ | — | static date | static date | static date | — |
| Cold-chain telemetry embedded | ✓ | — | 3rd-party portal | — | 3rd-party portal | — |
| Supplier audit calendar · BRC / IFS / SQF / GLOBALG.A.P. | ✓ | ✓ | supplier docs | ✓ | — | spreadsheet |
| Phytosanitary + sanitary doc chain unified | ✓ | add-on | supplier docs | supplier docs | via consultant | two folders |
| Country-of-origin chain · provenance (premium / EVOO / wine) | ✓ | — | — | — | configurable | — |
| Sub-segment coverage · produce / frozen / dairy / specialty / beverages / bulk | ✓ | CPG-first | retail-first | retail-first | generic | — |
| Excise tax handling · beverages / spirits | ✓ | — | — | — | configurable | — |
| Composite-lot recall recursion · multi-ingredient SKUs | ✓ | add-on | manual link | manual link | via custom dev | — |
| Deploy time · first lot live | 4 weeks | 4–8 mo | 3–6 mo | 6–9 mo | 9–18 mo | today |
A traceability suite handles supplier-document collection. A retail platform handles the buyer's side. An ERP handles the close. A datalogger portal handles temperature. None of them holds the lot as a record — with shelf-life live, cold-chain trace, audit calendar, document chain, and the recall trace under one ID. EDMA does, across all six F&B sub-segments — from a 3-day produce run to a 24-month EVOO lot.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Each lot carries its production date and shelf-life spec at intake. Atlas projects remaining shelf-life live from transit conditions — temperature, humidity, time — against the product's known decay model. The forecast updates every 6 hours and at every checkpoint (port, transhipment, customs, DC), so the channel mix can re-balance before margin is gone.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough. We'll model one of your live lots — produce, frozen, dairy, specialty, beverages, or bulk — and show the source data, the cold-chain trace, the shelf-life projection, the supplier audit window, and the recall trace on a single record.