What is a Batch Code in Cosmetic Manufacturing?

Batch codes are very important to cosmetic products. You may have never noticed the batch code before. It's that small series of numbers and/or letters printed or stamped on the container. You might have just thought it was gibberish, but batch codes are, in fact, really important in cosmetic manufacturing.

Here's why:

Why Batch Code?

Let's start by showing where the batch codes come from. When factories make products, they will put a batch code on those products (usually on the bottom). They may screen-print it on the packaging with the normal information, but typically they will stamp it on after the fact, once the bottle is finally filled.

This is because the batch code is much less important to the bottle than it is to the contents inside. An empty bottle by itself doesn't matter much. The contents inside could possibly be recalled, due to unsafe or questionable materials inside, contaminated batches or ingredients, or possible safety breaches due to one or more incidents associated with said products.

An Example:

Using a batch code can save you a lot of time and money if there were to be an issue with one of your products.

As an example, let’s say one of your customers opens a new product to find algae already growing inside. Yuck! Of course we do not want this to happen, ever, but it could.

Say you have produced over 10,000 units of the exact same product in 4 different batches, but this type of issue is almost always contained to the particular batch (contaminants). If you didn’t batch code all of your products you may be forced to throw out and recall all of your finished products (goodbye money), because there is no way to differentiate which batch the contaminated one came from.

Furthermore, it would be nearly impossible to identify what caused the issue with that batch and how to avoid it in the future.

Now let’s say you did batch code each unit of product. If your customer found algae growing in their product you could ask them to identify the batch code on the packaging. From there you can throw away/recall only the units produced in that batch, and save the rest since they most likely do not have the issue that the affected batch does.

You could then contact your manufacturer, and identify what exactly went wrong, and then avoid making this same mistake in the future. In more severe cases this can help avoid liability for damages by identifying when and where the mistake happened.

Neither situation is ideal, however not batch coding your product can turn an already bad situation much worse.

In other words, batch codes are important because:

Manufacturing Date:

The batch code provides a manufacturing date. Let's say a customer emails you to find out if a product is okay to use. If there's no date on the bottle itself, you can use the batch code to trace the date that the batch inside was manufactured, and hopefully you can pull up the testing data from stability testing as well, so you know the shelf life of the product.

Product Recall:

The batch code assists the manufacturer in determining which batch on the market requires recall or resolution, in the case that there's some quality issues with customers.

Tracking Product:

The batch code is required for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). If there's a big issue with your product resulting in a lawsuit, the batch code will help you trace back where the issue stemmed from, helping you avoid liability for damages.

When you receive your goods from the factory – especially if they are OEM – always make sure to ask for and document the batch code.

You'll thank us later!