What this is
What has to be on the register before a product can go live?
What has to be on the register before a product can go live?
A product needs its pack format, category, allergen presence and may-contain declarations, shelf life and storage condition confirmed before it's treated as active. Anything missing on those fields is exactly what downstream labelling and traceability records will get wrong.
What's the difference between Allergens Present and Allergens May Contain?
Allergens Present are ingredients actually in the recipe and must appear on the label as such. Allergens May Contain covers cross-contact risk from shared lines or storage — a precautionary declaration, not an ingredient statement. Confusing the two produces either an under-declared label or an unnecessary precautionary warning.
Why does Shelf Life Days link to a separate Shelf Life Study record?
The number on the register is a claim; the study is the evidence behind it. Linking the two means a shelf life figure can't sit on the register indefinitely without a traceable piece of work that justified it.
Scope
When is a product and sku register required?
This register is the spine every product-linked record depends on. Using it to hold specification detail that belongs in a dedicated document, or skipping the update when a recipe changes, produces downstream records that quietly point at the wrong thing.
Use this template when
- A new product or pack format is launching and needs its own ID in the form PROD-2026-000
- A recipe, supplier, pack format or allergen profile changes on an existing SKU
- A shelf life study or specification review completes and the register needs to reflect the result
- You are running the Allergen Management, Labelling and Packaging, or Master Data programme and this is one of its steps
- A linked record needs this one to exist: feeds Specifications, Traceability, Allergen control
Do not use it for
- Site and Location Register, which holds every site, building, area and zone your organisation operates, not the products made in them.
- Vendor and Contractor Register, which holds supplier and contractor detail, not the products they supply ingredients or packaging for.
- Label Verification Record, which checks that a specific print run of labels matches the approved artwork, not what the product's declared allergens should be.
- Shelf Life Study Record, which holds the evidence behind a shelf life figure; the register only holds the resulting number and a reference to the study.
- Customer Register, which holds the customer relationship and contract detail that this register only links to by name.
Compliance mapping
Which BRCGS cl.5.1 requirements does this satisfy?
BRCGS cl.5.1 requires product information — including composition, allergen and shelf life data — to be accurate, current and available to those who need it. The clause map below shows where each requirement sits in the form.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| BRCGS cl.5.1 | Maintain accurate, current product information covering composition, allergens and shelf life | Products |
| BRCGS cl.3.3 | Hold an approved specification for each product, and keep it under review | Products |
| BRCGS cl.5.6 | Ensure label content is verified against the product's approved allergen and ingredient data | Products |
| BRCGS cl.5.1 | Base shelf life claims on evidence, and reference that evidence against the product record | Products |
| BRCGS cl.3.3 | Review and update the specification whenever a formulation or supplier change occurs | Header |
| BRCGS cl.5.1 | Keep the register itself current, with a defined review interval and named owner | Header |
| BRCGS cl.3.3 | Track and close out gaps where a product lacks a current specification or shelf life study | Register health |
What it does not cover
- Allergens Present left unchanged after a supplier substitution introduced a new allergen into a shared ingredient.
- Allergen Statement Verified marked Yes with no record of who checked it against the label or when.
- Shelf Life Study ID left blank against a Shelf Life Days figure that has been carried forward from an earlier, different pack format.
- Specification Reference pointing at a document version that predates the last recipe change.
- Status shown as Active for a SKU that hasn't been produced or reviewed in over a year, with no Discontinued decision recorded.
Global
Product and SKU Register requirements by country
BRCGS is a private certification scheme, but what the register has to prove differs depending on which regulator or customer audit is actually reading it.
Food Information to Consumers Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 (retained in UK law)
The listed allergens on the register have to match the legal definitions in the regulation, not an internal shorthand list.
Allergens Present and Allergens May Contain need to be checked against the regulation's allergen list at every review, not just against what a supplier declaration happens to mention.
FASTER Act 2021, amending FALCPA (21 U.S.C. §343)
Sesame became a labelled major allergen under US law from 2023, alongside the original eight.
A register built to a UK/EU allergen list needs its US-facing SKUs checked separately, since the two lists diverge.
BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, Issue 9, cl.5.1 and cl.3.3
Certification auditors treat an out-of-date specification or shelf life reference on the register as a nonconformity against product safety and legality assurance, not a data-entry issue.
The register needs to show it was actually updated at the point of change, not just that it holds a plausible-looking entry.
How to complete it
How to complete a product and sku register, step by step
The fields themselves are simple to fill in. The judgement calls are about when an entry is trusted enough to be built on.
Unlike a risk score, an allergen field can't sit at a partial answer — either it's declared or it isn't. The judgement call is what evidence is enough to move an ingredient from May Contain to Present, or to remove it altogether, and that threshold needs to sit with technical, not with whoever is updating the form fastest.
Any change to recipe, supplier or pack format should update the register immediately, not wait for Next Review Due. The judgement call is treating the review date as a backstop for catching drift, not as the only trigger for keeping the record current.
Specification Reference is a pointer, not a place to duplicate content — the register should hold enough to confirm a current specification exists, while the detail itself lives in the specification record it links to.
A Discontinued SKU still has to remain traceable for as long as product from it could be in the market or under recall consideration, so the judgement call is retiring the Status rather than deleting the row.
What auditors find
Most common product and sku register findings
These are the gaps that show up most often when a product and SKU register is checked against what's actually on the label and in the recipe.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Allergens Present hasn't been updated after a supplier substitution changed a shared ingredient's allergen profile. | BRCGS cl.5.1 | Make an allergen re-check a mandatory step in supplier or recipe change approval, before the register is signed off as updated. |
| Allergen Statement Verified is Yes with no named reviewer or date attached anywhere in the record. | BRCGS cl.5.6 | Require a reviewer and date whenever the verified flag is set, not just the flag itself. |
| Shelf Life Days has been copied across from a similar product with no Shelf Life Study ID to support it. | BRCGS cl.5.1 | Block a shelf life entry without either a study reference or an explicit note that it's inherited from an equivalent, already-studied product. |
| Specification Reference points at a version number that predates the product's most recent recorded change. | BRCGS cl.3.3 | Tie the specification version check into the same change process that updates the register. |
| Products Without A Current Specification is tracked in Register health but never converts into an Action Required entry. | BRCGS cl.3.3 | Force Action Required to Yes automatically once the gap count on a specific product exceeds the review interval. |
| Status remains Active on SKUs that haven't been produced in over a year, with no Discontinued decision made. | BRCGS cl.5.1 | Add a dormancy check at the review interval that prompts an explicit Active or Discontinued decision rather than leaving it unreviewed. |
Case in point
Case in point: a shared ingredient substitution that never reached the register
A supplier substituted a stabiliser in a shared base ingredient used across several SKUs, and the new stabiliser contained soya. The specification for the base ingredient was updated by procurement, but the product register entries for the finished SKUs using it were not, because no process linked the two.
Label Verification continued checking artwork against the register's outdated allergen list, which still showed no soya, and passed every batch for months until a customer complaint about an undeclared allergen forced a full trace back through every record that had, correctly, been reading from a register that was itself wrong.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
3 sections
- Reference
- FDN-022
- Archetype
- Register
- Record ID
- PROD-2026-000
- Scoring
- Records complete
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- BRCGS cl.5.1
- Links
- Feeds Specifications, Traceability, Allergen control
- Tags
- Registry, Product
- Sections
- 3
- Fields
- 34
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 1
- Links out
- 5
Header
8 fieldsRegister ID*
Auto sequence. Format PROD-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
Last Reviewed*
Maintained By*
Next Review Due*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
The Spine Of Every Quality Record
Almost every quality, traceability and labelling record points at a product held here. Get the allergen and shelf life fields wrong and the error propagates everywhere.
Products
Repeats15 fieldsProduct Name*
Product Code*
Pack Format*
Category*
Status*
Customer
Allergens Present*
Allergens May Contain
Allergen Statement Verified*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Shelf Life Days*
Shelf Life Study ID
Links to QUA-096 Study ID
Storage Condition*
Specification Reference
Artwork Version
HACCP Plan Reference
Links to QUA-046 HACCP ID
Register health
11 fieldsProducts On Register*
Products Without A Shelf Life Study*
Products Without A Current Specification*
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Technical*
Signature*
Quality Manager*
Second Signature*
FDN-022 · record IDs look like PROD-2026-000 · Feeds Specifications, Traceability, Allergen control
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The form is the easy part. Keeping every downstream record pointed at a current, correct entry is the work that actually slips.
Reads allergen presence and may-contain data straight from this register, so a change here is what actually drives segregation and changeover decisions.
Checks artwork and label verification against this register's current allergen and shelf life fields, catching the gap before it reaches a customer.
Keeps this register consistent with the customer, specification and site records it links against, so one change updates everywhere rather than in eight lists.
Coordinates the crew, rolls completion and exceptions into one view, and holds every write for your approval before it touches a record.
This template lives in General — control tower. The orchestration layer. Registries and engines every other workspace reads from.
Meet General→Glossary
Product and SKU Register definitions and key terms
- SKU
- Stock keeping unit — a distinct, trackable version of a product defined by its specific pack format, size or customer variant, even when the underlying recipe is identical.
- Precautionary allergen labelling
- A 'may contain' style declaration used where cross-contact risk exists from shared lines or storage, distinct from a declared ingredient that's actually in the recipe.
- Specification
- The controlled document defining a product's full technical detail — composition, tolerances, packaging and quality criteria — that the register points to rather than duplicates.
- Shelf life study
- Evidence-based testing, whether by challenge test, accelerated ageing or historical data, used to justify the shelf life figure declared for a product.
- GFSI
- Global Food Safety Initiative — the benchmarking body that recognises certification schemes, including BRCGS, as meeting a common baseline for food safety management.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about product and sku register
Does every pack format of the same recipe need its own register entry?+
Yes — pack format, allergen risk from shared lines, and shelf life can all differ by pack even when the recipe is identical, so each combination is tracked as its own row.
Who is responsible for keeping the register current?+
Technical maintains it, but the trigger for an update — a recipe, supplier or pack change — usually originates elsewhere, which is why the register needs to sit inside the change process rather than beside it.
What happens to a discontinued product's entry?+
It's marked Discontinued rather than deleted, because traceability and any recall exposure can still reach back to product made under that entry.
How does this register relate to the Allergen Changeover Check?+
This register is where allergen presence for each SKU is declared; the changeover check is where segregation and cleaning between different-allergen runs on the line is verified. One is a data record, the other is a physical control.
Can allergen lists differ between UK and US customers on the same register?+
Yes in effect, since sesame is a legally listed major allergen in the US but the underlying allergen presence data should be the same — the difference is in how it's labelled for each market, not in what's actually in the product.
Can the template's fields be changed?+
Yes. Every field, option and link is editable, and downstream records that read from it follow the change — most teams install it as-is and adjust after a cycle of real updates.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Allergen Management
Undeclared allergen risk controlled at the four points it actually arises.
Labelling and Packaging
The leading cause of recalls caught by a two person check at every changeover.
Master Data and Foundations
One place for each thing, so a change updates everywhere rather than in eight lists.
Used together in Allergen Management
Certificate of Analysis Review
Checks the certificate supplied with a material against the agreed specification
Allergen Changeover Check
Confirms the line is clear of the previous allergen before the next product runs
Glass and Brittle Plastic Register
Lists every item of glass or hard plastic in production areas, with its location and condition
Label Verification Record
Verifies that the label on the line matches the specification for that product, covering allergens, claims, dates and barcodes
Artwork Approval Record
Records approval of new or amended artwork before it is printed, with each checker named
Rework Instruction Record
Sets out how a specific batch is to be reworked, what checks apply and who authorised it
More in Registries
Site and Location Register
Holds every site, building, area and zone your organisation operates
Asset Register
Holds every piece of equipment, machine, vehicle and tool you track
Worker Profile
Holds a record for each worker, including role, department, site and start date
Job and Task Register
Lists the jobs and tasks people perform, so risk assessments and ergonomic assessments can be tied to real work rather than job titles
Vendor and Contractor Register
Holds every supplier, contractor and service provider you work with, including their status and approval level
Chemical and Substance Register
Lists every chemical and hazardous substance held on site, with quantity, location and hazard class
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, Issue 9, cl.5.1 — Product design and development
- BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, Issue 9, cl.3.3 — Specifications
- Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 — Food Information to Consumers
- FASTER Act 2021, amending FALCPA (21 U.S.C. §343)
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.