Fresh Foods

Produce growers, packers, and shippers are increasingly using unique product identification and case-level traceability to enhance food safety and operational efficiencies. Along with their trading partners, they are leveraging GS1 Standards to enable fast, precise recalls while also gaining additional benefits from improved inventory management, as well as streamlined shipping and receiving processes. 

Produce Traceability Initiative 

The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is the most wide-reaching industry effort in the produce sector, offering tools and resources for the adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards. The goal of PTI is to help the industry achieve supply chain-wide adoption of electronic traceability for every case of produce. View PTI page

Additional resources:

The GS1 DataBar^® is a point-of-sale barcode that enables tagging of small, hard-to-mark consumer goods like fresh foods and loose produce. In a much smaller space, the GS1 DataBar carries the same information as the standard U.P.C. barcode.

• Download How to Build a GS1 GTIN into a GS1 DataBar for Produce PDF (101 KB)
• Download How to Build a GS1 GTIN into a GS1-128 for Produce PDF (101 KB)

Transitioning from a generic U.P.C. to a brand owner-specific U.P.C.?

• Visit Benefits of Brand Owner-Specific U.P.C.s for Produce to get started.
• Download How to Transition from Generic U.P.C. to Brand Owner-Specific U.P.C. PDF (1.3 MB)

The seafood industry is using GS1 Standards to enhance supply chain visibility for improved business processes and enhanced food safety. By implementing effective traceability programs, companies can conduct fast, precise recalls. In addition, they are unlocking greater value from the use of standardized product and location information.

The Seafood Traceability Implementation Guide, developed by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), GS1 US, and U.S. seafood industry stakeholders, provides practical guidance for industry-wide seafood traceability.

Highlights include:

• Voluntary minimum requirements and best practices to share information among seafood distribution channel participants 
• Global Trade Item Number^® (unique identification) management, use of batch/lot numbers and the potential for case serial numbers, and data encoding and capture recommendations 
• Traceability principles across the product hierarchy 
• Best practices for maintaining traceability throughout the seafood supply chain.

Download PDF guide

Other key resources: 

• Seafood Traceability Proof of Concept Project Overview makes a case for implementing GS1 Standards for traceability with a focus on capturing key data elements at critical tracking events along the seafood supply chain.

Download overview PDF

Learn more by visiting our Education and Training page, our Resource Library, or by contacting us at retailgrocery@gs1us.org or foodservice@gs1us.org.