How to Check Lot Numbers and Recalls When Clearing Expired Medications

Clearing expired medications isn’t just about tidying up shelves. It’s a safety issue that can prevent harm, avoid legal trouble, and stop thousands of dollars from being wasted. If you’re handling meds in a pharmacy, clinic, or even a home care setting, getting this right matters. Too many people make the mistake of guessing expiration dates from lot numbers - and that’s dangerous. The truth is simple: expiration date is the only thing you should trust. Lot numbers? They’re for tracing, not timing.

Why You Can’t Guess Expiration from Lot Numbers

Lot numbers are not expiration codes. They’re batch identifiers. Think of them like a car’s VIN - they tell you which factory made it, when it rolled off the line, and which parts were used. But they don’t say when it stops working.

Manufacturers use different formats. Pfizer might write 230515A - that’s May 15, 2023, and a production line code. Merck could use MK22B047, where 22 means 2022. But here’s the catch: even if you spot a date in the lot number, you still don’t know how long the drug lasts. A pill might be good for 2 years. Another for 5. It depends on the formulation, storage, and manufacturer. The FDA doesn’t let companies hide expiration dates inside lot numbers. They require the EXP date to be printed plainly on the package - usually in MM/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY format.

A 2023 study found that 38% of international meds use day-month-year format. If you’re used to month-year, you might think a pill expires in June 2025 when it actually expires in December 2025. That’s a 6-month mistake. And mistakes like that lead to either dangerous overdoses of old meds… or throwing out perfectly good ones.

The Only Reliable Way to Check Expiration

Look at the package. Not the bottle label. Not the box. Not the lot number. The EXP date. It’s required by law. If it’s faded, torn, or missing? Don’t guess. Don’t assume. Don’t risk it.

In 2024, Harvard Medical School tested 1,200 pharmacy inventory checks. When staff relied on EXP dates alone, they got 98.6% accuracy. When they tried to reverse-engineer expiration from lot numbers? Accuracy dropped to 41%. That’s not a typo. Four out of ten times, they got it wrong.

Here’s what to do:

• Find the EXP label. It’s usually on the side or bottom of the bottle, blister pack, or box.
• If it’s EXP 06/2025, the drug expires at the end of June 2025.
• If it’s EXP 15/06/2025, it expires on June 15, 2025.
• If you can’t read it, take a photo with good lighting and ask a pharmacist. Or call the manufacturer.

How to Check for Recalls Using Lot Numbers

Once you’ve confirmed the expiration date, you need to check if that exact batch has been recalled. A drug can be expired and safe - or it can be expired and dangerous because of contamination, mislabeling, or manufacturing flaws.

The FDA maintains a public database called Recalls, Market Withdrawals & Safety Alerts. You can search it by drug name, lot number, or manufacturer. But here’s the trick: you need the exact lot number from the package. No approximations. No partial matches.

For example, if your bottle says L1234567B, you type L1234567B into the search bar - not L1234567. One character off, and you miss a recall.

Pharmacies in the U.S. are required to check this database before disposing of any expired meds. In 2021, the FDA documented 217 recall incidents where expired meds stayed in stock because staff didn’t cross-check lot numbers. Some of those meds were linked to serious infections and overdoses.

You can also call the manufacturer directly. Most have a toll-free number on the packaging. If you’re unsure, ask the pharmacy’s compliance officer. They’re trained to handle this.

What Happens If You Skip the Check?

Ignoring lot numbers and recalls isn’t just sloppy - it’s risky.

In 2023, a chain pharmacy in Ohio gave out 1,200 doses of expired antibiotics. The lot number matched one that had been recalled for bacterial contamination. Patients got sick. One ended up in the ICU. The pharmacy paid $2.3 million in fines and settlements.

Even if nothing bad happens, you’re still breaking the law. The DEA requires all controlled substances to be tracked and documented when disposed. The FDA requires all meds to be cleared properly. If you’re audited and can’t show you checked recalls and expiration dates? You could lose your license.

And financially? It’s expensive. A 2024 Gartner report found that pharmacies waste $412 million a year on expired meds - partly because they misread lot numbers and threw out good drugs, or kept bad ones too long.

How to Set Up a Safe Clearance Process

If you’re managing meds regularly, you need a system. Here’s a simple 7-step process used by top pharmacies:

1. Isolate any meds with EXP dates within 60 days. Don’t wait until they’re expired.
2. Scan the lot number into your inventory system. If you don’t have one, write it down.
3. Go to the FDA’s recall database and search that lot number.
4. Call the manufacturer’s customer service line and confirm there’s no active recall.
5. Take a timestamped photo of the bottle with the EXP date and lot number visible.
6. For controlled substances, fill out FDA Form 3639 before disposal.
7. Keep all records - photos, logs, emails - for at least two years.

This takes about 22 minutes per inventory cycle if you’re using a barcode scanner. Without one? It could take 3 hours. And that’s why so many small pharmacies still get it wrong.

Tools That Make This Easier

You don’t have to do this manually. Systems like MedKeeper, IFS Inventory, and GS1-compliant scanners automate the process. They scan the lot number and EXP date at the same time, cross-check the FDA database, and flag anything suspicious.

The FDA approved an AI scanner in April 2024 that reads EXP dates from damaged or blurry labels with 99.2% accuracy. That’s huge. Because 31% of medication labels get smudged, bent, or faded during shipping and storage.

Even if you’re not using fancy tech, you can still improve. Use a bright LED lamp - 500+ lux - when reading labels. Poor lighting causes 1 in 5 misreads. And update your manufacturer contact list every quarter. Companies change phone numbers. Websites get redesigned. Don’t rely on old info.

What’s Changing in 2025 and Beyond

By November 2025, the FDA will require all pharmacies to use electronic lot tracking. That means no more paper logs. No more handwritten notes. Everything must be digital and traceable.

The industry is moving toward standardized lot numbers through the SNI (Standardized Numerical Identification) initiative. But here’s the key: expiration dates will still be separate. The FDA made that clear in 2023. They won’t merge them. So even when lot numbers get simpler, you’ll still need to read the EXP label.

By 2027, experts predict over 89% of manufacturers will use GS1 barcode standards. That means scanning a pill bottle will give you the drug name, lot number, and expiration date - all in one scan. That’s the future. But until then, you still have to do the work.

Final Rule: Trust the Label, Not the Code

Lot numbers are for tracing. Expiration dates are for safety. Recalls are for protection. You need all three.

If you only remember one thing: never calculate expiration from a lot number. It’s not just wrong - it’s illegal. And it puts lives at risk.

When in doubt:

• Look for the EXP date.
• Search the FDA recall database with the exact lot number.
• When in doubt, call the manufacturer.
• Document everything.

It’s not glamorous work. But it’s vital. And done right, it keeps people safe - and your facility out of trouble.