GS1 Standards help you and your supply chain partners assign unique identifiers to products, locations, and checkpoints—enabling precise traceability, better inventory management, and stronger food safety. By improving data quality and communication across every link, GS1® keeps your supply chain running smoothly from suppliers to retail grocery customers and restaurant patrons.
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Properly delivering fresh food, packaged goods, beverages, and more from the farm or manufacturer to the grocery store shelf or restaurant promptly is essential in today's world. Depending on the product, reaching the grocery store or restaurant can take five days to five weeks. GS1 Standards are a common language that businesses can follow to communicate with their trading partners throughout the supply chain. Created by industry for industry, GS1 Standards can be used regardless of technology platform within foodservice and retail grocery to make traceability possible, so you can ensure that each of your supply chain partners shares accurate data during transit and that counts are always up to date.
From supply chain management to customer safety, with proper inventory management and recall response, GS1 US® makes it easier to manage products, locations, and shipments by simply scanning a barcode. Enhance your supply chain management in foodservice and retail grocery with help from GS1 Standards.
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Related Topics
Areas Where GS1 Standards Can Help
Fresh Food
With a short shelf life, fresh food demands reliability and transparency. GS1 guidelines support proper handling, minimize food waste, and prepare your business for recalls or disruptions, helping your company meet regulations.
Shelf Stable Products
For packaged goods, GS1 Standards streamline data sharing on ingredients, allergens, and measurements through a single barcode scan. The result: improved visibility, smoother partner communication, and safer products from factory to shelf.
Why Are GS1 Standards Important for Foodservice and Retail Grocery?
GS1 Standards for foodservice and retail grocery are essential for ensuring consistency throughout the supply chain. At GS1 US, we work with industry to set and uphold barcode standards used in grocery and foodservice to ensure seamless communication between suppliers, retailers, and everyone in between. Whether you’re tracking food items as they move from the farm or packaging plant, monitoring inventory at the point-of-sale, or verifying product authenticity, your products’ barcodes must function properly from end to end.
Identify: Product and Location Identifiers
Make product traceability easier with a GTIN. Whether you run a brick-and-mortar store or sell products online, a GTIN lets you track your inventory from its source to your customers. Get a unique GTIN for each of your products to ensure accurate traceability
Enhance Traceability With Global Location Numbers (GLNs)
These unique identifiers are assigned to locations or parties involved in the supply chain. For instance, a small farm can use a GLN for its physical location, allowing other supply chain partners to know the origin of produce from that farm. Chain restaurants can assign a GLN to distribution centers and individual restaurants in the chain. A large manufacturer can assign a GLN to individual departments, such as purchasing or receivables, to track everything from products to payments.
Capture: Food Barcodes
2D Barcodes on Products
Barcodes in foodservice and retail grocery help serve customers more efficiently. The UPC is the barcode used on everyday groceries to identify food products, but 2D barcodes, like QR Codes, are becoming more commonplace and will be the new standard with Sunrise 2027. The change to 2D barcodes will make much more information available to retailers and customers with a simple scan.
GS1-128 for Cases
Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers can track products through every step in the supply chain with barcodes and radio frequency identirfication (RFID) tags. GS1-128 barcodes are usually used on higher levels of packaging and can hold detailed product information such as batch/lot, serial number, or expiration date, which is why they are so beneficial in shipping, receiving, and warehouse scanning environments.
RFID Tags
The same data encoded in the GS1-128 case/carton barcode can be made available wirelessly and captured automatically through RFID. With sizes from as small as a grain of rice to as large as a brick, RFID tags are an efficient way to track products as they pass through checkpoint readers in a warehouse, distribution center, or retail location. Additionally, RFID tags play a critical role in reducing shrinkage with anti-theft features. With GS1 Standards, capturing information from food barcodes and RFID tags is easier at every step in your supply chain.
Share: Electronic Data Exchange
Reach your full potential and serve your customers with quality data. The Global Data Synchronization NetworkTM (GDSN®) allows companies to electronically share standardized up-to-date product data that includes weight, dimensions, nutritional information, allergens, etc. For example, restaurant suppliers can use the GDSN to define product information then provide accurate information to the restaurant for accurate menu creation. Not only does the process allow greater transparency with customers, but it also provides an added measure of safety.
Offer robust data sharing with Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS). Share information about products as they move through the supply chain with Critical Tracking Events and Key Data Elements. Rather than sharing information manually, EPCIS shares it electronically with your supply chain partners.
Benefits of GS1 Standards for Businesses
Maintaining industry standards is part of keeping your business running smoothly. Consistency in barcodes throughout the supply chain makes it easier to track products while in transit, monitor handling, and manage inventory. Effective data transfer reduces lost inventory and maintains food safety. Furthermore, streamlining the buyer’s journey and verifying proper storage during transit improve the customer experience.
Rather than hand-counting items, barcodes and RFID improve efficiency throughout the supply chain by making it easier to manage inventory for even the biggest grocery retailers and foodservice companies in the USA. Workers can scan barcodes and log products in the inventory management system in a matter of seconds. This information can be shared throughout the facility and with partners in the supply chain. Retailers and foodservice companies can get updates on product locations without having to manually track them down en route to their destinations.
These unique identifiers are assigned to locations or assigned to a party involved in the supply chain. For instance, a small farm can use a GLN for its physical location, allowing other supply chain partners to know the origin of produce from that farm. Chain restaurants can assign a GLN to distribution centers and individual restaurants in the chain. A large manufacturer can assign a GLN to individual departments to track everything from products to payments.
Before barcodes were standard in grocery stores and other retailers, items needed to be entered into a cash register by hand. Barcodes enhance the customer experience by making it easier for cashiers and clerks to ring items up, resulting in shorter checkout lines. Additionally, barcodes are an added safety measure, allowing retailers to verify an item’s authenticity. An authentic and unique barcode ensures safety by providing supply chain transparency while combating counterfeiting. Further safety protocols include allergen information, storage and handling procedures, and additional product information.
Traceability enhances food safety throughout the supply chain by sharing transport, handling, and storage data. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) requires reporting of specific Critical Tracking Events and Key Data Elements with the U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Rule 204. When data is shared throughout the supply chain, partners can be alerted to product recalls or lapses that require removing products from inventory to maintain safety. Having the right information about contaminated food items helps you prevent the spread of foodborne illness and reduces waste by enabling you to pull inventory with precision.
Providing data for foods in each step of the supply chain is important to ensure each step is doing its part to deliver fresh and nutritious food to the retailer or restaurant. Growers, foodservice operators, and everyone in between must collect and share product information that supports “one up/one down” traceability. End-to-end traceability records the completion of each step of the supply chain, providing comprehensive information throughout the entire process, which guarantees proper and timely handling. Learn more about how to ensure data quality with the GS1 Standards for Product Data Excellence Online Certificate Course. In addition to transport data, product data includes ingredients and storage requirements. Providing customers with allergen information is essential to maintaining safety and is required by the U.S. FDA, which requires clear labeling on products that contain milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. Storage requirements are also included to ensure freshness and prevent the growth of microbes.
Streamline your inventory management with data showing real-time information about where your products are, how much you have on hand or on the way to your location, and recommendations for proper inventory rotation to maintain freshness. Quality data helps maintain ideal counts to reduce waste by preventing overstock or having items on backorder. You’ll serve your customers better while maintaining inventory efficiency.
Responsible product sourcing ensures sustainability in every step of the supply chain. From ethical sourcing practices to sustainable farming techniques, your company can promote social well-being and fair trade while creating cost-reducing supply chain efficiency. Choosing sustainability reduces waste and promotes longevity with every step of your production process.
We Are Ready to Help You Succeed
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small farmer or a multinational enterprise, GS1 Standards can help with your everyday operations. As a not-for-profit organization, our mission is to work with our members to bring together the business community to identify issues impacting businesses or industries and build consensus around best practices using standards-based solutions. We’re happy to provide solutions, advisory services, educational materials, and training to help you grow your brand into a successful business.
As a GS1 US member, you’re never alone. Our advisory services can help you identify where and how to implement GS1 Standards, with support for enabling RFID solutions, onboarding your team with standard practices, creating supply chain automation, and even ensuring product image standards are met. Our team of experts can assist with maximizing the benefits of implementing standards-based processes to improve operational efficiencies.
Making changes within your business can be challenging. Work with those who have been there before to find the best way GS1 Standards can improve efficiency and help you share data with business partners and understand your target audience. Learn how best to adopt and implement GS1 Standards in your processes to ensure you efficiently manage inventory from in your supply chain from end to end through visibility and quality data.
Beyond implementation, GS1 US also offers virtual and on-site training. Learn more about some of the most popular topics, including:
- GS1 Standards fundamentals
- GS1 Standards for traceability
- GTIN management standards
- Data quality assessment and data governance
- Package measurement rules
Education and training in healthcare from our experts can expedite GS1 Standards implementation, improving efficiencies across your business operations.
Key Resources: Implementation and Guides
GS1 US is happy to provide implementation guides to help you get started. You’ll find a variety of guides that include information regarding:
- Guidelines
- Key Insights
- Success Stories
- Education and Training
Guidelines
Success Stories
Education and Training
Member Contributions
Not only can our team help you implement GS1 Standards but our collaborative workgroups are here as an additional resource. No matter which industry you’re a part of, we have workgroups and industry initiatives where you can partner with experts to solve problems and find collaborative solutions. We’re happy to help you find professionals within your industry and build a community of experts to continually build your business.
At GS1 US, it’s our mission to provide a foundation that moves your business forward with data-sharing standards. Our team can help you with everything from teaching you how to get a barcode for food products to providing resources for implementing GS1 Standards in your organization. GS1 US can help you improve your inventory, supply chain, and industry partnership management with food traceability.
