Custom software for F&B manufacturers and processors who need recipe management, ingredient traceability, production planning, and food safety compliance connected in one system. Not managed across paper records, spreadsheets, and a generic ERP that calls your production room the shop floor.
Built around your production environment. Batch sizes, yield calculations, allergen declarations, shelf-life management, and the traceability requirements of your retail or foodservice customers are all configured to your specific operation.
Recipe and formula management with version control, cost calculation, and approved specification control
Lot-level ingredient traceability from goods receipt through production to finished goods despatch
Production planning linked to recipe requirements, inventory, and line capacity
Food safety and quality management covering HACCP, allergen control, and audit documentation
The problem
Sound familiar?
Traceability mock recall taking hours because ingredient lot numbers are tracked in paper batch records across three production lines?
Recipe formulas managed in a shared spreadsheet with no version control, so production teams can't confirm they're working from the current approved specification?
Short answer
RaftLabs builds custom food and beverage software for manufacturers and processors: recipe and formula management with version control, lot-level ingredient traceability, production planning, allergen management, and food safety compliance (HACCP, BRC, SQF). We launch a validated first module in 12 to 18 weeks, then expand it into the full platform at a fixed, agreed cost.
Trusted by
Paper batch records and spreadsheet recipes don't survive a food safety audit
Food manufacturers face a combination of regulatory compliance requirements and customer audit standards: BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000, retailer-specific codes of practice. All require documented evidence for every ingredient used, every process step completed, and every quality check performed.
Meeting those requirements with paper records is possible, but it's fragile. One illegible batch record, one missing sign-off, one recipe version discrepancy is enough to fail an audit or trigger a corrective response that consumes days of management time.
Custom F&B software gives you structured data capture. Compliance documentation becomes a byproduct of normal production activity, not a separate exercise. Recipes are controlled. Lot numbers are tracked from intake to despatch. Quality checks are recorded at the point of completion. A recall simulation that takes hours with paper records takes minutes with a system that can trace every batch.
01 Diagnosis
Where food and beverage software usually breaks
01
Problem
A recall that should have touched three days of production ends up touching three weeks
Solution
A food safety authority or retailer audit requires a forward or backward trace within hours. When the scaler inputs lot number 1234 when actually using lot number 2234, you have now lost inventory control and traceability. The data exists. It just isn't connected, because databases don't talk to each other: what a supplier records in no way correlates to how the plant records it.A traceability system links goods receipt lot numbers through every production stage to finished goods despatch. A recall query becomes a 10-minute exercise, not a half-day search. Every batch is accountable. Every lot is findable. The outcome is recalls measured in days, not weeks.
02
Problem
Built for general ledger accuracy, not lot-level genealogy
Solution
Food ERP systems are built for general ledger accuracy, not lot-level genealogy, with traceability bolted on afterward instead of built in from the start. Legacy systems log a lot number as a static field and call it traceability. And the food business gets retrofitted into the ERP's model: your production room gets called the shop floor.When a recipe lives in a shared spreadsheet that anyone can edit, there's no reliable way to confirm the production team is working from the current approved formula. Version-controlled recipe management with approval gates means the formula on the line is the formula the quality team approved. And there's an audit trail to prove it. The outcome is a recipe the line can trust.
03
Problem
HACCP records assembled the night before the auditor arrives
Solution
A food safety audit requires complete, attributable, contemporaneous records for every critical control point check. Records assembled from paper sheets the day before an audit are neither contemporaneous nor reliably complete.When CCP monitoring is captured digitally at the point of production, the audit documentation is a report generated from live data. Not a manual compilation exercise the night before. The outcome is an audit pack that generates itself.
04
Problem
Most manufacturers grew into spreadsheets by default
Solution
Most manufacturers didn't choose spreadsheet-based traceability as a strategy. They grew into it by default, and the tracking method that worked for ten lots a week stops working at fifty. Allergen scheduling stays informal because the allergen matrix and the production schedule are managed separately, so cross-contamination risk is assessed by whoever is scheduling the line.Connecting allergen management to the production schedule makes the conflict visible before it becomes a recall. Allergen declarations generated from the approved recipe mean the label that goes to print always reflects the current formula. The outcome is allergens controlled by the system, not by memory.
02 What we ship
Food and beverage software we build
01
Recipe and formula management
A recipe register with version control showing the current approved specification for every product, with full revision history and a sign-off workflow before any new version reaches production. Ingredient quantities with unit of measure conversion, yield factors, and loss percentages. Allergen declarations generated automatically from the ingredient list, with cross-contamination flags for shared-line allergens. Cost calculation showing standard material cost per batch and per unit, based on current ingredient purchase prices. Batch scaling that adjusts quantities and recalculates packaging requirements for any run size. The outcome is the recipe register that replaces the spreadsheet.
02
Ingredient traceability
Lot-level traceability from goods receipt through every production stage to finished goods despatch. Goods-in recording captures supplier name, delivery date, lot number, best-before date, and quantity received against each ingredient delivery. Production batch records link the ingredient lot numbers consumed to the finished goods lot produced, including any rework incorporated. Finished goods despatch records the customer, delivery date, and lot numbers shipped. Forward trace shows every customer who received product containing a specific ingredient lot. Backward trace shows every ingredient lot that went into a specific finished goods lot. The outcome is a mock recall in minutes.
03
Production planning and scheduling
Production plan generation based on customer orders or demand forecast, recipe requirements, current stock levels, and line capacity. Materials requirements calculation shows the quantity of each ingredient needed for the plan, checked against current stock and open purchase orders. Line scheduling with shift allocation and changeover time management. Work orders generated from the plan carry the approved recipe, required quantities, and lot number assignment. Production progress is tracked against the work order, with actual yield recorded at completion. Variance reporting shows the difference between standard and actual yield by product and by run. The outcome is a plan the floor can actually execute.
04
Food safety and HACCP compliance
HACCP critical control point monitoring with configured limits, recorded checks, and an out-of-limit alert workflow. Cleaning and sanitation schedule management with completion records and sign-off. Pest control log and issue-resolution tracking. Calibration schedules for measuring equipment with certificate storage and overdue alerts. Supplier approval workflow requiring quality documentation before a supplier is approved for production use. Non-conformance recording and deviation resolution for quality incidents. The outcome is food safety documentation an auditor can review unassisted.
05
Quality management
Incoming goods inspection with configurable checks by product category, pass/fail criteria, and a quarantine workflow for rejected deliveries. In-process quality checks at defined production stages with check type, frequency, and acceptance criteria configured by product. Finished product release with final quality check sign-off before goods reach despatch. Customer complaint management from initial receipt through investigation, root cause analysis, and resolution sign-off. Product hold and release workflow for stock pending a quality decision. Shelf-life management with best-before date allocation and stock rotation reporting. The outcome is quality held at the gate, not found at the customer.
06
Allergen and labelling management
An allergen matrix showing the presence of every regulated allergen in your market in every ingredient and every finished product, automatically updated when a recipe changes. Shared-line allergen management with cross-contamination risk assessment and cleaning validation records. Label specification management showing approved label content for each product: allergen declaration, ingredient list, and nutritional information. A label change workflow requiring sign-off before a new specification is released for print. The outcome is labels that always reflect the approved formula.
03 Buy, build, or wait
The F&B software decision is usually about the model: whether the system understands food manufacturing or treats it as a factory with recipes.
Stay on the ERP
SAP, Dynamics, Sage, BatchMaster
When your volumes are standard and the ERP's food modules cover your traceability.
Build custom
When your production room is called the shop floor
Generic ERPs retrofitted onto food plants. Build the system that speaks your language.
When traceability is bolted on
A static lot-number field called traceability. Build lot-level genealogy from the start.
When it's much easier on paper
Paper survives because the ERP screen is too slow for the line. Build capture that works at line speed.
Bottom line
Stay on the ERP while its food modules cover your traceability. Build when the model, the traceability, or the line-entry workflow stop fitting food manufacturing.
04 How we work
How we build food and beverage software
01
Discovery
We map your production environment: the product mix, batch sizes, line configurations, certification scheme, and the traceability and quality requirements of your retail or foodservice customers. We identify where paper records or disconnected systems create the most compliance risk or operational overhead, and agree on the scope that delivers the most value first. You receive a fixed-price specification before development begins. The risk this retires: the certification requirement discovered mid-build.
02
Architecture
We design the data model around your actual production structure: lot number schema, recipe version control, CCP monitoring configuration, and the supplier and allergen relationships that must be traceable end to end. The compliance documentation requirements of your specific certification scheme (BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000) are designed into the data architecture at this stage. The risk this retires: the lot-number schema the auditor rejects.
03
Build
Development runs in two-week sprints with working software shown at each checkpoint. Recipe management, traceability, production planning, and quality management modules are built in parallel where dependencies allow. ERP integrations for stock movements and purchase orders are built and tested against your live system during this phase. The risk this retires: the ERP integration tested against the wrong system.
04
Launch and support
Go-live is phased to avoid disruption during peak production periods. We provide onboarding for production supervisors, quality managers, and procurement teams. Post-launch support covers adjustments from real production use, with handover to your team or an ongoing arrangement before the next planned audit. The risk this retires: the go-live timed before the audit.
Across dozens of industries, we recognise your situation fast, then frame the fix around your margin and your operations, not a generic template.
02
We own the number, not the ticket
We measure success the way you do: hours saved, revenue earned, margin recovered. We stay through launch and growth, so the result is ours to own.
03
Serious businesses trust us
Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cisco, Energia, Aldi, Nike. Building since 2015. Serious businesses keep coming back because we stay accountable long after launch.
09 Questions
Common questions
Yes. Lot-level ingredient traceability is the core food manufacturing compliance capability we build. We record goods receipt lot numbers, link them through production batch records to finished goods and despatch records, and enable a forward or backward trace query in minutes rather than hours. Retailer and food safety authority traceability requirements are the primary driver.
Yes. Recipe and formula management with version control is a specific product we build for F&B manufacturers. Only the current approved specification is accessible to production. Previous versions are archived with a clear audit trail. The approval workflow requires sign-off before a new version goes live. Shared spreadsheet recipes that get edited without approval are the exact problem the system solves.
Yes. Food safety management software with HACCP plan documentation, critical control point monitoring records, out-of-limit response workflows for out-of-limit readings, and audit documentation generation (BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000, or retailer-specific requirements) is a specific capability we build for food manufacturers. Paper-based HACCP records fail audits; the system captures the data at the point of production.
Yes. The system's structured data capture is designed so the documentation an auditor requires (HACCP records, traceability data, cleaning schedules, supplier approvals, calibration records) is produced as a byproduct of normal production activity. Report generation and export cover the specific document formats that BRC, SQF, and FSSC 22000 audits require. The specific compliance standard and its documentation requirements are identified during discovery so the system is configured to your certification scheme.
Yes. Common integrations include SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, and specialist food manufacturing ERPs. The integration typically covers stock movements (goods in, production consumption, despatch) flowing to the ERP's inventory module, and purchase orders flowing from the ERP into the goods receipt workflow. We scope the integration during discovery based on the APIs or data exchange formats your current system supports.
Multi-site operations need a central recipe library with site-specific production parameters. The batch sizes, line assignments, and packaging specifications may differ by site even when the core formula is the same. We build recipe management with site-level variants so the approved formula is controlled centrally while site-specific parameters are maintained locally. Traceability is maintained across sites for products that move between them, with lot linkage preserved throughout.
We launch a validated first module, recipe management with version control or lot-level traceability, in 12 to 18 weeks. We scope every project before pricing. Fixed cost, agreed before work starts.
That's the honest question. A production team logs batches on paper because the ERP screen is too slow or disconnected for real-time entry, and workers who treat documentation as a serious obligation will resist any system that doesn't satisfy those requirements. We design data capture for the line, not the office: fast entry at the point of production, screens that work on the floor, and traceability that happens as a byproduct of the job rather than a separate exercise. The system ships when your line team can run a shift on it.
Tell us your production environment, your certification requirements, and where your current systems create risk or overhead. We'll scope the right platform and give you a fixed cost.
Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
