FIFO vs FEFO: What Businesses Need to Know
First-In-First-Out and First-Expiry-First-Out sound similar but lead to very different results for perishable stock.
Tolu Adewale 5 min read
Product Manager
The definitions
FIFO (First-In-First-Out) sells the oldest received stock first. FEFO (First-Expiry-First-Out) sells the stock with the nearest expiry date first.
When they give different answers
If a supplier delivers a newer shipment with a shorter expiry than what is already on your shelf, FIFO would sell the long-dated stock first — and the short-dated batch may expire. FEFO avoids this.
Which should you use?
Use FEFO for anything with an expiry date: medicines, food, beverages, baby products and cosmetics. FIFO is fine for non-perishables like household goods and hardware.
- Pharmacy: always FEFO.
- Supermarket fresh & packaged food: FEFO.
- Household, electronics, hardware: FIFO.
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