• Product Identification Standards
• Automated Data Capture
• E-Commerce
• Data Synchronization
• Traceability

Technology & Standards: Barcodes

Once the use of the GTIN has been incorporated, barcodes can be used. Barcodes simply allow the receiver to automatically capture the information contained inside the barcode; hence, barcodes are referred to as a type of “automated data capture”. There are applications of this at all levels of packaging, including the pallet, case and item. The de facto industry standard for identifying cases in the food industry has always been the 14-digit GTIN. The use of the GTIN inside barcodes at the case level is so widely used in the food industry that many buyers have automated their receiving process, saving them warehouse labor and congestion at the dock. As the large majority of produce cases do not have barcodes with the GTIN encoded, produce cases have to be treated as an exception to this automated process; thereby requiring the receiver to perform manual activities to handle the produce. This is a very burdensome and costly activity to the receiver.