GS1 Global Traceability Conformance

The Global Traceability Conformance Programme (GTC) has been developed to review Traceability
Systems in place through a rigorous methodology supported by methodology, technical criteria and
technical documents based on the

 GS1 Traceability Standard (GTS)

 Compliant with ISO 22005:2007 and ISO 19011:2002
 Optional : additional requirements (BRC, SQF, IFS, HACCP…)

GTC defines essential elements for the development of best-practices for the global production and
distribution of trade items acceptable to the Food industry Worldwide. GS1 GTC Checklist contains 105
Control Points and their Compliance Criteria.

Eg. GS1 Implementation Guidelines GS1 Implementation Guidelines For instance for Beef Traceability
with respect to EU Reg. 1760/2000

GS1 application to the meat industry - Numbering structures for identification

The main elements of the numbering system are:
Main elements Description
Application A method of identifying information about a trade item over and above product
Identifiers (AIs) identity, such as batch number or production date and as indicated above.

Data Carriers (Bar codes)

The GS1 unique numbers are represented in data carriers that enable automatic capture of the data.
The red meat industry has determined that the GS1-128 bar code is to be used for carcase ticketing,
carton labels and pallet labels. This allows attribute data as well as product identification to be encoded.
eMessaging
The terms electronic data exchange (EDI) and eMessaging, used within the context of this document,
apply to the various syntax-based standards available to transact commercial documents electronically.
The types of documents applicable for the meat industry include National Vendor Declarations, Market
Vendor Declarations (MSA, NFAS), Meat Transfer Certificates, Health Certificates, as well as consignment
and transport information.
Five Key Points of GTC
1. Traceability assessment and Audit Measure conformance to GS1 standards and Provides management
with actionable reports aimed at facilitating improvement.
2. Brand Protection and Risk Management Reduce the impact of recalls, product withdrawals and
therefore protect brand equity. Insurance for scandals – food safety or other crisis owing to better
visibility on the product flow.
3. Responsive Supply Chain Better information exchange between stakeholders in the chain increase
efficiency better transparency, increase consumer confidence and create a relationship with the end
consumer.
4. Legality Provides compliance with regulations and with traceability requirements of HACCP, BRC and
IFS. Allows fulfilling traceability requirements of main food regulations such as EC 178-2000, 2002
Bioterrorism Act – FDA, Food Sanitation Law in Japan among others.
5. Technical Support & trainings The GS1 system of standards is the most widely used supply chain
standards system in the world. We do have expertise and our standards are documented
http://www.gs1.org/services/gsmp/ and for traceability website: www.gs1.org/traceability
Applying data carriers
Barcodes
The marking of traceable objects is driven by the level of identification. Batch/lot-level or serialised
identification are dynamic data and therefore cannot be included in the artwork of the packaging. This
means that adding dynamic data in a barcode will have an impact on printing and packaging speeds.
Traditionally, barcodes on consumer units were used for POS scanning and only contained the Global
Trade Item number (GTIN), also known as EAN or UPC. With evolving product safety regulations and
product information requirements, other types of data are making their way to the barcodes on
consumer products. Besides the batch/lot ID and/or serial ID these may also include the expiry date,
best before date, etc. The proper linkage of the barcode, the related data and the produced instances of
the trade item, is a key aspect.

Looking at trade item groupings such as outer cases, traditionally barcodes containing a GTIN were
applied, in some cases pre-printed on the case, but also quite often included on a label. In recent years,
dynamic data have made their way to case labels causing such barcodes to be increasingly printed inline.

For logistic units the barcodes have always been based on the SSCC, which is a serialised identifier. This
means that logistics labels will be printed when the goods are packaged, and that the link between data
and label will be secured that way.
Responsibilities