Costco Date Coding Requirements: What Food Suppliers Must Print, and What Costco Prohibits

Oct 25

4 min read

Inkjet printer marking a best-before date on food packages on a packaging line

Costco date coding requirements sound like a small label detail, but in Costco’s audit rules they sit inside the traceability section, and a coding failure can be a critical finding. A brand can have a great recipe, a clean plant and a happy buyer, then be sent back for a re-audit because of how the date was printed.

Today is October 25, 2026. This guide is based on a third-party-hosted copy of “Global Food Safety Audit Expectations for Costco Suppliers, Version 3.0, effective September 1, 2025,” which we read directly. Quoted wording comes from that copy. Costco may have issued a newer version, so confirm with your buyer or auditor.

What the Audit Expectations Say About Dates

Under Product Traceability (page 17 of the copy we read):

“All products sold to Costco must be marked with a use-by, or best-before date.” The stated purpose is to support traceability and recall.
Produce items “should also include a packed-on-date or scannable barcode/QR-code.”
Bagged salads and leafy greens containing romaine “must be labeled with the Harvest region and the pack date.”
“Julian code dating is not acceptable for any Costco product.”

If your current code is a Julian date (the day of the year, often printed as a number a consumer cannot read as a date), plan to change it for Costco product.

Coding Is Also a Traceability Test

The same document says finished products must be coded for traceability, and lists “Finished products are not properly coded for traceability” among the critical findings that require re-audit (page 12). It also says suppliers must be able to “trace specific lots (one step forward, one step back) within two (2) hours” and that annual mock recalls for products shipped to intermediary facilities must reconcile quantities to a selected lot code (page 18). In plain terms, your date code and lot code are the thread that makes those exercises possible. Our recall readiness guide covers the exercises themselves.

What Changed From an Older Version

A 2018 forum post quoted an earlier Costco document, “Food Safety Expectations June 2018,” as requiring a “use-by, sell by or best before date.” The 2025 version we read lists “use-by, or best-before” and does not mention a sell-by date. The forum is not an official source and quotes the document secondhand, so treat the difference as a reason to check your current requirements, not as a confirmed rule change. A forum respondent in that thread also noted that a use-by date usually requires shelf life testing. That was one person’s advice and not a Costco requirement.

What the Document Does Not Cover

It does not set a minimum shelf life or remaining shelf life at delivery.
It does not address how to determine shelf life or require shelf life studies.
It does not specify case-level or consumer-package code formats beyond the statements above.
Appendix I (Allergen and Labeling Requirements) is referenced but was not included in the copy we read, so it may contain additional labeling rules.

If you need a minimum remaining shelf life for your item, ask your buyer. We did not find a published number and are not stating one.

Your Costco Date Coding Requirements Checklist

Get the current document. Ask your buyer or auditor for the latest audit expectations and read the traceability section.
Check your current code. If it is a Julian code, change it for Costco product.
Choose use-by or best-before and make sure it reflects your actual shelf life data.
Confirm your shelf life evidence, and ask your food safety team whether testing supports the date.
Link the date to a lot code in your records so you can trace a lot forward and back.
Test legibility. The date should be clear and durable through shipping.
Handle produce and salads separately: packed-on date or scannable code, and harvest region and pack date where required.
Run a trace exercise and time it against the two-hour standard.
Review Appendix I on allergen and labeling requirements.
Document the change so your auditor can see it.

Common Mistakes

Reusing a Julian code from another retailer’s program.
Printing a date that is hard to read or rubs off.
Setting a date without shelf life evidence.
Treating the date code and lot code as unrelated.
Letting different plants or co-packers use different formats.
Discovering the problem at the audit.

Why This Is a Brand Strategy Issue

The date on the package is the member’s first signal of freshness and your first line of defense in a recall. Fixing it before a buyer meeting is cheap. Fixing it after a critical finding is not. Date coding also touches packaging, production and quality teams at once, which is why it often falls through the cracks.

Work With Fractional Brand Managers

FBM helps emerging brands prepare for Costco, including the packaging and documentation details auditors check. If your label or code format is not Costco-ready, we will help you plan the fix with your packaging and food safety teams.

Call 732-433-7873 | info@fractionalbrandmanagers.com | www.fractionalbrandmanagers.com

This article is general information, not legal or regulatory advice. It summarizes a third-party-hosted copy of Costco’s audit expectations (Version 3.0, effective September 1, 2025) and may not reflect the current version. Confirm with Costco. We are not affiliated with Costco Wholesale.