A batch is a quantity of material produced together under the same conditions. Everything made in that run shares its history, so a single identifier is enough to describe all of it — and that identifier is the batch number.
Why materials are batched at all
Traceability only works backwards from something. Without a batch identity, a question about one container is a question about every container that has ever been shipped, and no supplier can answer it.
With one, four things become answerable:
- which production run a specific container came from
- what testing was performed on that run, and by whom
- what the storage and shipping conditions were
- who else received material from the same run
That last point is the one that matters when something is wrong. A supplier who cannot identify the affected population cannot act on a problem; they can only hope.
What the number links to
For material supplied by us, a batch number resolves to a record holding the production date, the expiry or retest date, the associated documentation, and its current status. Status is the part people overlook. A batch can be active, expired, withdrawn or under investigation, and it can change status after the material has shipped.
Where to find it
The batch code is printed on the container label, after the word BATCH. The format is three letters followed by six digits. It is deliberately printed on the container itself rather than only on the outer packaging, because outer packaging gets discarded and the container outlives it.
Checking a batch
Enter the code on the batch verification page. You will get the batch's status, its dates, and confirmation of the product it belongs to.
Two limits to be clear about.
Verification confirms a record, not a container. It tells you that a batch with that number exists in our system and what we hold about it. It cannot confirm that the container in your hand is genuinely from that batch, that it has been stored correctly since it left us, or that its seal is intact. Those are physical questions and no lookup answers them.
It only covers material supplied by us. A code from another supplier will not resolve here, and that is not evidence of anything about the other supplier.
If the check does not come back clean
If a batch shows as expired, withdrawn or under investigation, stop using the material and contact us with the batch number before doing anything else.
If a code does not resolve at all, check for transcription errors first — the digit and letter shapes that get confused most are 0 and O, and 1 and I. If it still does not resolve, tell us. A code that should exist and does not is worth knowing about at our end as much as yours.