Undeclared allergens caused 34% of FDA food recalls in 2025
Every food and beverage plant runs a first-piece label check, and on most lines it's a clipboard, a signature, and a set of eyes. That check is the last thing standing between a wrong sell-by date and a full pallet on the truck. Six months later, when the complaint lands, the signature is all you have.
What you'll watch happen on the line
A person opens one assigned task on a tablet and works a first-piece check on a live product. Item number, sell-by date, UPC, weight, pallet. Two of those entries fail on camera, and neither one gets waved through.
- The date that fails itself: watch a sell-by date get rejected before the person can move on.
- One character off: a UPC scan that passes, then the same scan minus one digit.
- A smudged print, on purpose: the label in the demo came off a real line.
- The prompt that follows a failed check: correct it, or stop the line.
- Six months of shipped product: every label verification image and result, pulled up in a few clicks.
- Seven expired labels: what a search across 2,000+ documents turns up, and why it matters at startup.
"The elimination of product rework due to mislabeling has increased the company's overall first-pass quality. This has enabled us to reduce thousands of labor hours tied to rework — 3,000 labor hours/year, $150,000+ in annual savings."
Where the label check usually breaks down
A first-piece check only works if the operator is holding the current label version. It only holds up later if someone can find the record without opening a binder. The demo runs both halves in one pass.
Under three minutes, start to finish
The demo runs under three minutes. Ian Hildebrandt, SafetyChain’s principal solution consultant, walks the check on a tablet, the same way an operator would at startup.