WMS for food and cold-chain warehouses

Regulation and traceability

Article 24 of Law No. 5996, headed “Traceability”, requires food and feed business operators to set up a system for tracing the products in their responsibility at all stages of production, processing and distribution, and to provide this information to the Ministry on request ^[1]. In the warehouse, this means being able to show which lot came from whom and went to whom.

Capabilities to look for in a WMS

Capability	Why it matters	How to test it in a demo
Expiry management and FEFO	The earliest-expiring stock ships first; minimum remaining shelf-life rules apply.	Have a customer-specific minimum remaining shelf-life rule defined.
Lot traceability and recall	Which customers received a lot can be found in minutes.	Run a forward and backward traceability report for a lot.
Temperature zones and location rules	Frozen, chilled and ambient goods are put away only in the right zones.	Try to put a chilled item into an ambient zone.
Quality / quarantine	Stock awaiting sampling or analysis cannot be shipped.	Quarantine an item at receipt and release it.
Catch weight	For products sold by weight, the actual weight flows to the invoice.	Pick a catch-weight item and review the delivery note.

Ask the vendor

How many minutes does a recall scenario take with real data?
Can you take data from temperature loggers or sensors?
Are customer-specific shelf-life rules standard?

Directory solutions whose sources mention this sector

The list is alphabetical and based on whether each solution's own sources mention this sector; it is not a ranking or recommendation. Checked: 2026-09-18.

Open the WMS finder for this sector →

To put these requirements to vendors in the same format use the RFP template; to test them in demos use the scripted demo guide.

Sources

Law No. 5996 on Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed, Art. 24 “Traceability” — mevzuat.gov.tr (accessed: 2026-09-19)

Method and corrections: editorial policy.