To enhance business efficiencies and improve product traceability along the supply chain, companies within the North American consumer packaged goods, fresh foods, grocery and foodservice industries have come together to develop guidance for industrywide adoption of a single standard for case-labeling information for finished products. The result is the publication of the North American Industry Guidance for Standard Case Code Labeling for Extended Product Attributes. The voluntary implementation of this guidance for products in the food industry enables trading partners to share critical dynamic product information about their food products, such as batch and lot numbers, “Best-by” and “Use-by” dates and other product information. The guidance document is now available at www.gs1us.org/industries/cpg-grocery/tools-and-resources.

The North American Industry Guidance for Standard Case Code Labeling for Extended Product Attributes covers general definitions needed to understand and implement standardized product case labeling, along with specific guidelines for the use of human readable information, as well as the GS1-128 bar code used to capture multiple product qualities in a single scan. The document also explains how the use of the GS1-128 bar code can facilitate business processes and improve product traceability and food safety in the supply chain. Industry stakeholders will also find guidance for category-specific requirements and technical considerations for the application of case labels, including printing specifications and symbol placement on cases.

Source: www.GS1 US