Tools and directories

The batch log, and the fields that matter

Updated October 2026

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The fields Why those three carry it The dispatch temperature is the one people skip Track wastage in the same book Write it during, not after Keep it as long as the product could still be in a fridge Two clipboards beat one spreadsheet References

Three temperature-and-number records carry this property: the pasteurization, the cold holding and the pH. Everything else supports them.

The fields

Batch code and the date made.
Milk: supplier, collection date, quantity, and composition if available.
Pasteurization: time, temperature, and the instrument used.
Culture: which, from what source, and when it was last renewed.
Incubation: temperature and duration, with the actual readings.
pH of the finished product, with the time after filling.
Cold holding temperatures while the stock was with you.
Dispatch: date, temperature at dispatch, and where it went.
Wastage: what was not sold and why.

Why those three carry it

The pasteurization record is the evidence that the legally required step happened. The cold holding record is what separates a problem that was yours from one that happened downstream. The pH is what supports the name on the label. A complaint will land on one of the three.

The dispatch temperature is the one people skip

It is the last moment you have evidence, and without it every cold chain failure is attributed to you by default. It costs one reading per delivery and it is worth more than any other single entry.

Track wastage in the same book

It is the number that tells you whether the business works, and it only becomes visible if it is recorded next to what was made rather than noticed at the end of a bad month.

Write it during, not after

A log filled in at the end of the day records what you intended. It has to live where the work happens and be simple enough to complete with wet hands, which here means a clipboard by the pasteurizer and another by the cold room.

Keep it as long as the product could still be in a fridge

Which here is weeks rather than years, and that makes retention easy. What is not easy is the inspection side: dairy record retention is often specified by the state and runs far longer than the shelf life, so ask rather than assuming the two are the same period.

Two clipboards beat one spreadsheet

The pasteurizer and the cold room are in different places and both produce readings on a schedule. A single log somewhere else means readings taken from memory, and a temperature written from memory is not a temperature record at all.

References

21 CFR 1240.61, Mandatory pasteurization for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption, which prohibits delivering such a product into interstate commerce unless it has been pasteurized or is made from pasteurized dairy ingredients. law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 131.200, Yogurt: not less than 3.25 percent milkfat and not less than 8.25 percent milk solids not fat, with “a pH of 4.6 or lower measured on the finished product within 24 hours after filling.” law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and FDA guidance, not from a laboratory. Pasteurization of milk and milk products in final package form for interstate commerce is a federal requirement, and what your state permits inside its own borders is a separate question. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.