Patent ID: 7464873

Claim:
A method of managing expiration dates of products having individual product units with unique product identification information identifying the product, each of the product units having an expiration date, comprising the steps of, recording the product identification information for a first expiration dated product unit of a set of said units having the same product identification information and the same expiration date; recording said expiration date common to all said units of said set of units having the same expiration date; associating said expiration date with the said product identification information; storing said associated expiration date and said product identification information in a database; stocking for sale or placing in inventory said product units for which said product identification information and said expiration date information has been stored in said database; repeating the foregoing steps for additional unique combinations of products and expiration dates as necessary to acquire and store associated expiration dates and product identification information for all such unique combinations stocked; selecting a date for the purpose of initiating a query of said database; querying said database for product identification information associated with an expiration date within a date range between said selected date and a date a preselected number of days earlier than said selected date; displaying a listing of said product identification information for products with an associated expiration date within said date range; checking stock or inventory of a listed product to identify the presence or absence of product units with expiration dates within said date range; if product units within said date range for said listed product are found, taking a predetermined action with regard to said found product units; if product units within said date range for said listed product are not found, deleting from said database said associated product identification information and expiration date data relating to said product units not found; and repeating the foregoing three steps for each remaining product of said listed products until the stock or inventory for each said listed product has been checked and appropriate management action taken.