About GS1 Standards

The GS1 standards are designed to help you identify, capture and share information with your trading partners – wherever you are in the world. Our standards are the global language of business.

Why use GS1 standards?

Well-designed standards are the foundation for clear, understandable exchanges between trading partners. By using them, you can keep costs down and reduce complexity in your supply chain.

The GS1 standards are:

• Global – no matter where you operate, the GS1 standards will work

• Robust – they are purpose-built by industry, for industry

• Multi-sector – they work within any organisation or business, and are widely adopted across different sectors

• User-generated – they are built and maintained through a global, collaborative forum of volunteers from all industries

• Scalable – they can be used by small businesses or multinationals

What is new in the latest version GS1 General Specifications Version 25.0:

The major points have been summarised here. For a full list of all the Work requests that have been added please visit - https://www.gs1.org/standards/genspecs/gscn_archive

Healthcare - Master UDI-DI
As a designated European Union issuing entity for UDI (Unique Device Identifiers), GS1 needed to develop specifications and rules for the “Master UDI-DI” to enable manufacturers to fulfil their obligations regarding UDI and avoid disproportionate data entries in European database on medical devices.

As this is a very specific request, this standard has been developed within the confines of what is referred to as a restricted application standard to support the requirement of EUDAMED. Application standard has been developed for Made to stock as well as Made to order devices. Locally TGA have no plans to adopt this at this point in time.

Healthcare - Patient Demographics
To support verification and validation of subject of care (patient) a new application standard has been developed to enable patient demographic information to be used in a machine-readable format. The following new Application identifiers have also been added.

Freight and Logistics - UN/CEFACT freight unit type
Encoding transport information – addition of a “UN/CEFACT freight unit type” field for use in the Scan4Transport 2D barcode allows for signalling what package type from the UN code list that the logistic unit conforms to. This AI (7041) for UN/CEFACT freight unit type needs to be processed in combination with SSCC.