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 Record the roast as numbers, not as a description Write it during, not after Keep it longer than the shelf life Code the jar, not the case References

This craft fails slowly and off your premises, and it fails in a category where the question is always which jars. The log is what answers that.

The fields

Batch code and the date it was made.
Nut supplier, their lot, and the harvest or pack date.
Roast: start time, temperature, duration, and who ran it.
What ran on the equipment immediately before, and the cleaning done.
Formulation by weight, including salt, sweetener and any stabilizer.
Grind: duration and the temperature at the end.
Jars filled, fill weight, and the jar and closure used.
Where the jars went.

Why those three carry it

The nut lot answers every aflatoxin and rancidity question and links your product to a supplier recall. The roast record is the evidence that the only safety control was applied. The changeover record is what makes an allergen statement a fact rather than an intention. Everything else is useful; those three are what a bad week turns on.

Record the roast as numbers, not as a description

An entry saying the nuts were roasted is not a record. Start time, temperature, duration and operator is. The difference matters precisely when somebody who was not there is reading it.

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 oily hands, which argues for a clipboard at the roaster rather than a spreadsheet in another room.

Keep it longer than the shelf life

A jar can sit in a cupboard well past its date, and a question about it will arrive long after you would have thrown the paperwork away. A log discarded at year end is discarded exactly when its batches start generating questions.

Code the jar, not the case

A code on the case is gone the moment a retailer unpacks it, and a complaint arrives as one jar on somebody’s counter. In a category with this one’s recall history, a code on the jar is what keeps a problem the size of a batch instead of the size of a season.

Keep it where the roaster is rather than on a computer in another room. A log that requires walking somewhere is a log filled in from memory, and a roast record written from memory is not a record of anything.

References

United States Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Measures to Address the Risk for Contamination by Salmonella Species in Food Containing a Peanut-Derived Product as an Ingredient. fda.gov

United States Food and Drug Administration. Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 570.375, Aflatoxins in Peanuts and Peanut Products, June 2021: FDA may consider peanuts and peanut products containing total aflatoxins greater than 20 parts per billion to be adulterated. fda.gov

21 CFR 164.150, Peanut butter: optional seasoning and stabilizing ingredients “do not in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food”, the fat content “shall not exceed 55 percent”, and artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners, chemical preservatives and color additives are not suitable ingredients. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation, FDA compliance policy and published food-safety research, not from a laboratory. The kill-step pages describe a real hazard and are a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture and a process authority, not a determination that any roast you run is adequate.