Updated October 2026
Best-by dates, recalls and heavy cases make food harder to fulfill than most products. A few direct questions show quickly whether a warehouse has handled them before.
Five questions do the most to separate a warehouse that knows food and beverage from one that doesn't:
By The Fulfillment.com team
Food and drink carry dates, fall under FDA rules, and weigh a lot for their size. A warehouse that runs apparel well may never have had to deal with a case of bottled water whose best-by date is stamped on the cap. You want to learn that before your inventory is on its shelves, and a handful of direct questions usually shows it. A warehouse that hasn't done the work tends to hedge.
Each one works with any warehouse you're considering. Under each is how we do it ourselves, including where our service stops.
This comes first because it's where a general warehouse most often slips. Food should leave first-expired, first-out (FEFO). Each lot is logged at receiving with its best-by or use-by date, and the nearest date ships first, whatever order the lots came in. A lot too close to its date should be kept off the picking shelves. Find out how that hold works. It might be a system block once a lot crosses a shelf-life threshold, or it might be a person reading cartons.
We rotate dated products by the best-by date we record at receiving. Short-coded stock is flagged there, so it can be held back before it reaches the picking shelves. Products with no date can simply ship in the order they arrived, first-in, first-out (FIFO).
In a recall you want to pull one lot, not everything you sell. That only works if the lot code follows the stock from the dock to each order it fills. We capture a traceability lot code at receiving and tie it to every outbound order.
The FSMA Food Traceability rule asks covered businesses for lot records like these when food is received and shipped. Even where the rule doesn't apply, a warehouse that can't tell you which orders a lot went into leaves you recalling your whole catalog on a guess.
The answer decides whether there's a fit at all, so raise it early and go through it SKU by SKU. Our warehouses are dry and ambient. We handle shelf-stable food and drink that stays safe at room temperature, and we can't take a SKU that has to be held in a set temperature range. Product that has to stay cold needs cold-chain storage, which carries heavier federal duties. Heat-sensitive items, such as chocolate in summer, are worth raising with every warehouse on your list. Our guide to dry/ambient vs cold-chain food fulfillment shows where the line between the two falls.
These are two separate things, and a 3PL that knows food will answer them separately rather than with one "yes, we're compliant." For registration, get the facility's registration number. For preventive controls, find out which Part 117 practices the operation follows and how it documents them. At a warehouse that holds food, those practices center on receiving, storage and recordkeeping. Our guide to the FDA-registered food facility explains what each one covers. Put both questions to us when you request a quote.
Cases of water, canned drinks and jarred food weigh a lot for their size, and freight is usually the biggest cost on your bill. A warehouse without a plan for dense cases costs you on every order. Our team ships these cases on their real weight, at carrier rates we've negotiated, and packs each one for its weight. Where your stock sits matters as well, which question 8 covers.
Whoever you're talking to, find out whether they price freight on real weight or box size, what carton a dense case goes in, and how they help you decide where your stock sits. Our guide to heavy and dense beverage freight optimization covers shipping heavy cases in more detail.
Some brands expect one partner to fill the bottles and ship them, and then learn those are different operations in different facilities. Our work begins once your product is ready to sell. Making, filling, bottling, canning and packing raw product all happen before it reaches us. Our kitting only combines finished, sealed units, for example into variety packs, sampler boxes and subscription boxes. Once you know where a warehouse's work begins, you know which jobs stay with your co-packer.
You'll want to watch your stock and orders as they move. Best-by rotation, lot records and scanned picking all run in BestOMS, which handles your orders and gives you a portal to watch them. Deposco runs the warehouse behind it. Dropstream connects your store and marketplaces, and it brings in retailer orders sent by EDI as well. Every pick is checked against its barcode before it ships.
With any 3PL, get the name of the platform, a look at the portal, and an explanation of how your store connects. Spreadsheets and email won't carry a growing brand.
Where your stock sits sets both delivery speed and freight cost. You can place inventory across our network of warehouses, which together reach 99.77% of the US in 1-3 day ground. Orders placed before the daily cut-off can ship the same day, and the cut-off follows the last carrier pickup at each warehouse. Each order is picked by best-by date from the warehouse holding your stock nearest the customer. Worth finding out from every 3PL you consider: how many warehouses it runs, how it helps you choose where stock goes, and when its same-day cut-off falls.
Returned food isn't like returned clothing. A sealed unit that's still in date may be resellable. One that has been opened, or is short-coded, is not. Find out what condition and date check a warehouse runs on a returned consumable, who decides whether a unit goes back into sellable stock, and what happens to one that fails. We'll answer the same questions for your SKUs.
Terms can differ from one account to another, so get each warehouse's minimums and fees in writing. With us, your rates depend on your SKUs, volume and channels, and they come back on a quote. Whoever you compare, get each charge listed on its own line. A single bundled number hides which charge is the largest, and it makes two warehouses hard to compare.
Start with five. How does the warehouse rotate dated stock, and what keeps a short-coded lot from being picked? Does a lot code recorded at receiving stay with the stock all the way to the order, so a recall can be held to one lot? Is the storage dry and ambient, refrigerated or frozen, and which of your SKUs need cold to stay safe? How does it control freight cost and damage on heavy cases? And where does it stand with the FDA and FSMA? A warehouse that has really handled food will answer all five directly.
We ship dated stock by best-by date, nearest date first, which is called first-expired, first-out (FEFO). Each lot's code and its best-by or use-by date are recorded when it arrives. Short-coded stock is flagged at receiving, so it can be held back before it reaches the picking shelves. With any warehouse, us included, get a clear account of how that block works and what happens to a lot on hold. First-in, first-out (FIFO), which goes by arrival date, runs too, for undated products and lots that always arrive in date order. The product decides which method a SKU uses.
Dry and ambient. We handle shelf-stable food and drink that is safe at room temperature. Product that has to stay refrigerated or frozen needs cold-chain storage, which comes with heavier federal duties, and we don't offer it.
That one word covers two separate things: whether the facility is registered with the FDA, and the written food safety plan it follows under FSMA. Ask about each separately, with any partner, us included. Item 4 of the checklist below gives the wording for each, and our FDA-registered food facility guide sets out the difference. In daily work, we ship dated stock nearest best-by date first and keep a lot code with each order from the day the lot arrives.
Cases of bottled water, canned drinks and jarred food ship on their real weight, at carrier rates we've negotiated, so a dense case isn't billed on its box size. They go in burst-resistant, double-wall cartons, and the packing is built to reduce the risk of leaks and dents in transit. You can also keep stock in more than one of our warehouses, which can shorten the trip a heavy case makes.
Fulfillment only. We're a 3PL, not a co-packer or bottler. Your food, drink or CPG product reaches us finished and sealed, and we don't make, bottle, fill, can or package it. When we kit, we put finished, sealed units together in one box, such as a variety pack, a sampler or a subscription box. Co-packing happens before fulfillment, with a separate partner.