About the Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative

The Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative is a voluntary, collaborative industry effort seeking to drive waste out of the foodservice supply chain, improve product information, and establish a foundation for food safety through better traceability.

Interested in participating? Contact us today!

Standards

GS1 Standards provide unique identification of items and products that provide the link between the item and the information pertaining to it.

Identify

GS1 Standards begin with GS1 Identification Numbers used to uniquely distinguish all products (trade items), logistic units, locations, assets and relationships across the supply chain.

The most used ones for Foodservice are:

  • Global Location Number (GLN)
  • Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
  • Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC)

Capture

GS1 Barcodes are capable of holding varying amounts of data to accommodate different needs, such as expiration date or a batch and lot number.

The most used ones for Foodservice are:

  • EAN/UPC – Carries a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
  • ITF-14 – Carries a GTIN or GS1-128 – Carries a GTIN with extended data or Serial Shipping Container Code

Share

Used in both the physical and digital worlds, GS1 Identification Numbers uniquely distinguish products, trade items, logistic units, locations, assets, and relationships in the supply chain. It is through the use of these numbers that information can be shared—from manufacturer to customers and consumers.

The most used ones for Foodservice are:

  • Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN)
  • Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
  • Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS)

Implementation

The Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) enables trading partners to globally share trusted product data. After contracting with a Certified Data Pool, suppliers can exchange product information with UniPro member distributors and all of their other GDSN engaged customers in an automatic and efficient way that ensures product data integrity.

Publishing product data through the GDSN can help increase manufacturer profitability through more efficient supply chain management.


To date, there are 480 UniPro Member locations with over 950 Vendors engaged with UniPro in support of the initiative.