The label date is given on the assumption that the product is kept in the storage condition printed on the label; the Labelling Regulation defines even the best-before date as the period in which properties are kept "when properly stored". A temperature excursion on the road lies outside that assumption and does not show on the label.
The regulation separates two dates. The use-by date is for food that spoils easily and may soon endanger health; past it, food counts as unsafe (Articles 4 and 27). The best-before date shows quality for other food. Reading the days left after an excursion as a quality margin is therefore wrong for a perishable product carried cold.
A decision needs the record. Under Article 21 of Law No. 5996, safety is judged with the distribution stages in view; if part of a batch is unsafe and the rest cannot be proven safe, the whole batch is treated as unsafe. With a shipment that has no temperature record, that proof is hard to make.
At goods-in, match product and batch number, the storage condition on the label, delivery time and the logger report, and name an air-sensor value separately from a product measurement. If there is no record or a value is outside the condition, do not mix the batch into released stock, keep the raw data and agree a written assessment with the supplier; there is no general shelf-life correction for an excursion.
