A case break is when you open a case and sell part of it: four bottles out of a case of twelve, a few pounds of cheese cut from a larger block, single heads of lettuce from a carton. Foodservice customers ask for it all the time. It is also an easy place to lose track of stock, labels and lot history.

This guide sets out what to record every time, what is useful when you can manage it, and what tends to cost more effort than it returns. Treat it as a starting point and adjust it to your products and your food safety plan.

Two kinds of break

Two quite different activities both get called a case break, and it helps to keep them apart:

  • Selling units out of a case. The inner packs stay sealed and labeled as the manufacturer packed them. You sell four of the twelve bottles. The product does not change; only the unit you count and sell in does.
  • Repacking. You open the product itself and put it into new packaging: cutting a block of cheese into smaller pieces, re-bagging produce, portioning meat. You create a new package with your own label.

The first is mostly an inventory problem. The second is also a food safety and labeling job, and it may be a traceability event.

Where FSMA 204 comes in

The FDA's Food Traceability Rule (FSMA 204), finalized in November 2022, applies to foods on FDA's Food Traceability List. It defines a set of critical tracking events, and transformation is one of them. The rule describes transformation as manipulating or changing a food or its packaging or packing, giving commingling, repacking and relabeling as examples. When you transform a listed food, you assign a new traceability lot code to the output and keep records that link it to the lots that went in. The compliance date is now July 20, 2028.

Whether a particular break is a transformation depends on the food and on what you do to it and its labels. Read the definitions on the FDA's Food Traceability Rule page, and see our FSMA 204 guide, before deciding how your own breaks are treated. If you are unsure, record the link between input and output lots anyway. It costs little, and it is what you will need in a recall.

What to record at every break

  • The source lot. Which case, from which lot, you opened.
  • What came out. The item and quantity produced, in the unit you will sell it in.
  • A new lot code, if you repacked. Repacked product needs its own code that points back to the source. Use one format and generate it the same way every time, so nobody invents codes on the spot.
  • Yield and waste. Input minus output. Trim, spoilage and breakage belong on the break record, not in a vague adjustment at month end.
  • Dates. Carry the source's best-by or use-by date forward, or set a shorter one if opening the product shortens its life. Your food safety plan decides which.
  • Who and when. The person who did the break and the time.
  • The label. Repacked product needs a label with the item, the new lot code, the date and any allergen statement. The article on the case-break allergen trap covers what goes wrong here.

Keep stock right after the break

Many case-break problems are really inventory problems. The system shows one case on hand, the shelf has seven loose units, and nobody is sure which is right. To avoid that:

  • Set up the each (or the pound) as its own sellable unit with a fixed conversion to the case, kept in one place in your item records.
  • Record the break when it happens, before the units are picked, so the case count goes down and the unit count goes up together.
  • Keep opened cases in one marked spot, and count that spot often. Loose units are easy to lose.
  • Use up the oldest opened case first, so you do not end up with several half-used cases of the same item.
  • Check the conversion when a supplier changes the pack. A case that goes from twelve to ten units will quietly break every count that follows.

Useful when you can manage it

  • A photo of the original case label, so the source can be checked later.
  • A temperature reading at the time of the break, for chilled and frozen product handled outside the cooler.
  • The station or equipment used, if your allergen or sanitation program tracks it.
  • A short reason for the break (customer order, damaged outer case, sample), which makes reporting easier.

Usually more effort than it returns

  • Weighing every piece when you sell by fixed units. If the customer pays per piece, weigh a sample now and then to check your yields. If the customer pays by actual weight, that is a catch-weight item and needs its own process.
  • Extra paperwork for breaks that leave sealed, labeled units untouched, beyond the stock movement and the source lot, unless the rule, your food safety plan or a customer contract asks for it.
  • Long free-text notes on routine breaks. A short list of reasons is faster to fill in and easier to report on.

Keep it fast enough that people do it

The best case-break record is the one that gets made. If recording a break takes longer than doing it, people will skip it at busy times and fix the stock later from memory. Keep the form short, print the label from the same step, and put the device or terminal where the breaking happens.

Then check it. Once a week, compare the breaks recorded against the loose stock on the shelf. If they do not agree, find out which step is being skipped and make that step easier.

How APFoodz handles it

APFoodz tracks lots, expiry and FEFO and records each lot's events, so a trace or a recall is a lookup. You design your own case and pallet labels and print them to a Zebra or any printer.