Which Products Need Expiry Tracking? A Guide for Kenyan Retailers
When you start using an inventory system, it is tempting to enable expiry tracking on everything. Milk, sugar, soap, batteries — track it all, right?
Wrong. Tracking expiry dates on products that do not expire wastes your time. Every delivery requires entering an expiry date, and you get alerts for products that were never going to go bad. Meanwhile, the products that actually expire get lost in the noise.
This guide tells you exactly which products need expiry tracking and which ones do not.
Track Expiry: YES
These products will expire, go bad, or become unsafe. If you sell them past their date, you risk your customers' health and your reputation.
Dairy and Fresh Products
| Product | Typical shelf life | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh milk (packets) | 5-7 days | Goes sour, health risk |
| Yoghurt | 14-21 days | Ferments and spoils |
| Cheese | 30-90 days | Mould, flavour change |
| Butter and margarine | 60-90 days | Goes rancid |
| Eggs | 21-28 days | Salmonella risk |
Dairy is the number one category for expiry losses. A single expired milk packet is KES 55 gone. Multiply that across a month of poor rotation and you are looking at thousands of shillings in waste.
Bread and Bakery
| Product | Typical shelf life | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Bread | 2-3 days | Mould |
| Cakes | 3-5 days | Mould, staleness |
Bread is tricky because it comes daily. The key is not tracking the date (you know today's bread expires in 2 days) but making sure yesterday's bread sells before today's. Always put new stock behind old stock on the shelf.
Medicines and Pharmaceuticals
| Product | Typical shelf life | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| All tablets and capsules | 1-3 years | Legally required, safety risk |
| Syrups and liquids | 6-12 months | Degrades faster once opened |
| Supplements and vitamins | 1-2 years | Loss of potency |
If you run a chemist or stock any medicine, expiry tracking is not optional. It is a legal requirement. Selling expired medicine can result in fines, closure, or worse.
Agrovet Chemicals
| Product | Typical shelf life | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Acaricides and dips | 1-3 years | Loses effectiveness |
| Dewormers | 1-2 years | Loses effectiveness |
| Vaccines | 3-12 months | Becomes useless or harmful |
| Pesticides | 1-3 years | Loses effectiveness |
Farmers trust you to sell them products that work. An expired dewormer that does not work means a farmer loses livestock. That customer will never come back.
Short-Lived Beverages
| Product | Typical shelf life | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh juice | 3-7 days | Ferments |
| Yoghurt drinks | 14-21 days | Spoils |
Track Expiry: NO
These products either do not expire, last for years, or sell so fast that expiry is never an issue.
Dry Goods and Staples
Sugar, salt, rice, dried beans, pasta, maize flour in packets — none of these need expiry tracking. Sugar stored in a dry place lasts indefinitely. Rice lasts 1-2 years and sells long before that. You would be entering expiry dates for no reason.
Household and Cleaning Products
Bar soap does not expire. Detergent does not expire. Bleach, tissue paper, toothpaste, matches — none of these need tracking. They will sit on your shelf for months and be perfectly fine.
Long-Life Beverages
Coca-Cola has a shelf life of 6-12 months but sells in days. Beer lasts 6-12 months and rarely sits that long. Spirits and wine last for years. Bottled water has a 1-2 year shelf life. None of these need active tracking in a typical duka.
Hardware Products
Cement, nails, screws, paint, pipes, wire, tools — none of these expire. A nail bought today works the same as a nail bought two years ago.
General Non-Perishables
Batteries (5-10 year shelf life), candles, stationery, airtime vouchers — do not waste time tracking these.
The Decision Rule
Ask yourself two questions:
Question 1: Will this product become unsafe or useless within 6 months?
- Yes → Track expiry
- No → Do not track
Question 2: Am I legally required to track this?
- Yes (medicines, animal drugs) → Track expiry, no exceptions
- No → Use Question 1
That is it. If the product lasts more than 6 months and there is no legal requirement, do not enable expiry tracking. You will save time on every delivery and your expiry alerts will only show products that actually matter.
Batch Tracking: When and Why
Batch tracking is related to expiry but serves a different purpose. A batch groups items that arrived together, so you can:
- Know which delivery expires first
- Recall a specific delivery if there is a quality problem
- Practice FIFO — First In, First Out
Use batch tracking for:
- Medicines — legally required for traceability
- Dairy products — multiple deliveries with different expiry dates
- Agrovet chemicals — traceability for quality issues
- Any product where you regularly have overlapping stock from different deliveries
Skip batch tracking for:
- Products you do not track expiry on
- Products where you only have one delivery at a time (bread — sell today's before tomorrow arrives)
- Very fast-moving items where batches rarely overlap
First In, First Out
For every product with expiry tracking, follow one rule: sell the oldest stock first.
In practice, this means putting new deliveries behind existing stock on the shelf. The milk that arrived yesterday should be at the front. The milk that arrived today goes behind it.
This sounds obvious, but it is the single biggest reason retailers lose money on expired goods. New stock gets placed in front because it is easier, old stock gets pushed to the back, and a week later you find expired milk behind the fresh milk.
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