Presence and position
Confirm that the complete expiry field appears inside the permitted print area.
Expiry-date inspection systems
Verify every expiry date before the pack leaves your line
Read the printed expiry field, confirm its format and compare it with the value expected for the active product—alongside batch, lot and print-quality checks.
Quick answer
Expiry code verification
An expiry-date inspection system proves more than code presence
The camera captures the expiry field on each presented product. Inspection software checks that the full field is visible and readable, then compares the read result with a recipe, calculated shelf-life date, PLC value or production database. A pack fails if the date is missing, incomplete, wrongly formatted, outside the permitted area or different from the expected value.
Character content
Read day, month and year information using OCR or verify a known value using OCV.
Date logic
Compare the printed result with the active job, shelf-life rule or externally supplied value.
Controlled failure
Reject, stop, alarm and record the reason when the expiry result is not acceptable.
Terminology and applications
Expiry, use-by and best-before are not interchangeable terms
The inspection is configured around the wording, format and rule that applies to the product rather than treating every date as the same field.
Food packaging
UK prepacked food normally carries a best-before or use-by date. The system verifies the applicable date and can also check batch or lot information.
Pharmaceutical and medical
Inspect expiry, batch, lot and other variable fields on cartons, labels, bottles, blisters or medical-device packaging.
Cosmetic and industrial
Verify shelf-life dates, period codes, batch identifiers and traceability strings on finished products or outer packaging.
For UK food-labelling terminology, see the official GOV.UK food-labelling guidance.
One coordinated inspection
Check expiry and traceability fields together
Where the expiry, batch and lot fields sit in the same field of view, one capture can apply a separate rule to each. The inspection can also confirm a prefix such as EXP or LOT, permitted separators, character count and overall code position.
- Fixed, calculated or externally supplied expiry values
- Day-month-year and month-year formats
- Batch and lot agreement with the production job
- No-read and wrong-read handled as controlled failures
- Stored failure image, read string and timestamp where required
Related routes
Build the complete code-control point
Combine expiry validation with the inspection method and reject response suited to the product risk.
Frequently asked questions
Expiry-date inspection questions
Representative print samples allow the acceptance rules to be proven before final engineering.
What does an expiry-date inspection system check?
It can check that the expiry field is present, readable, correctly formatted and equal to the value expected for the active product or production job. It can also inspect the batch or lot field in the same image.
Is an expiry date the same as a use-by date?
Not always. UK food labelling normally uses best-before or use-by wording, while expiry date is common in pharmaceutical, medical, cosmetic and other regulated or shelf-life-controlled products. The inspection is configured around the wording and rule that applies to the product.
Can the expected expiry date be calculated automatically?
Yes, where the required shelf-life rule and production date are available. The expected value can be calculated in a recipe, PLC or production system and passed to the vision inspection for comparison.
Can expiry and batch codes be rejected automatically?
Yes. A failed product can be tracked to an air blast, pusher, drop flap or conveyor-divert reject. Reject confirmation and line-stop logic can be added according to the risk assessment.
Application review
Send us the pack, expiry format and expected production speed
We will outline the camera, lighting, verification logic and failed-pack response suited to the application.