Compliance with National and International Regulations Made Easy with GS1 Barcodes

Barcode numbers or unique product codes give an identity to your products, whether you are selling them online or through retain channels. But the benefits of having barcodes are not just confined to having an identity or ease of selling. The benefits are multipronged. One such important benefit of identifying your products with GS1 barcodes is compliance with several government regulations.

Compliance with national and international regulations

Various national and international regulations currently require/endorse the need for GS1 barcode numbers on products. Some of these include:

  • DGFT Public Notice No. 52 2015/2020 mandates use of GS1 barcodes on exported medicines to facilitate track & trace and authentication
  • Delhi Excise department uses barcodes on liquor for authentication
  • Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s Medical Devices Rules 2017, states global trade item number (GTIN) for medical devices
  • U.S. FDA Regulation for Unique Device Identifier (UDI) for medical devices
  • EU Regulations on medical devices and on in-vitro diagnostics
  • Other regulations, including the Russian Federation law which will be in full force as of January 1, 2020; the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) which went into full force on February 9, 2018; the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) where serialization mandate went into effect on November 27, 2018

Connect with consumers using Smart Consumer app

With GS1 barcode numbers on your products, you can upload your product information on GS1’s DataKart service, which feeds data to the Smart Consumer mobile app. Consumers can access this product data while scanning the product barcode using the Smart Consumer mobile app. This helps them to get the complete product information of the product, which may not be readable/available on the packaging of products including cosmetics, personal care, etc. This helps a consumer to make better purchasing decision and consume with awareness.

Further, as a part of Digital India and consumer empowerment initiatives, regulatory bodies such as FSSAI and AGMARK have directed brand owners to publish their product data on Smart Consumer app, to make it accessible to consumers.

Please note that GS1 India is the only authorised body to sell and issue GS1 barcode numbers (numbers starting with 890) in the country. Buying your barcode numbers from an authentic source – GS1 India – benefits your business in multiple ways, including compliance with regulatory requirements, improved search results, automated data capture and more.

Smart Consumer App is The New System for Redressal of Consumer Complaints: FSSAI & MoCA

FSSAI and Ministry of Consumer Affairs informed the Industry about the new system for redressal of consumer complaints through integration with the ‘Smart Consumer’ mobile app of Department of Consumer Affairs, during the National Conference on ‘Enabling Regulatory Compliance & Connecting with Consumers’.

The conference was jointly organised by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, FSSAI, and GS1 India recently and attended by over 100 companies, including leading brand owners, retailers, and online shopping portals. Some of the participants include Reliance Retail, Big Bazaar, Amazon, Canteen Stores Department, Coca Cola, Paytm, Kellogg’s, Flipkart, Grofers, Walmart, Nestle, Dabur, Patanjali, J&J, HUL, Britannia, Mondelez, Kraft Heinz, ITC, Tata Global Beverages, Mother Dairy, amongst many others.

Shri Pawan Agarwal, CEO, FSSAI, stated that with this integration, no consumer complaint would go unresolved and consumers would gain visibility to FSSAI license number certificates and product recall alerts.

Shri P V Rama Sastry, JS, Department of Consumer Affairs explained how scanning of barcodes (which use GTIN – Global Trade Identification Numbers) on consumer products using the Smart Consumer app would enable consumers to read marking and labelling information with ease, which is otherwise difficult due to small print on product labels.

Leading retailers and brand owners, including Nestle India, Reliance Retail, Canteen Stores Department, Big Bazaar and others shared their experiences of exchanging product data with trading partners using DataKart – a national repository of retailed product data that feeds in information to smart consumer mobile app. They also talked about how DataKart helps them in mitigating challenges in access to quality, up-to-date data on retailed products, including on new product introductions, product withdrawals, active/inactive SKUs, product changes, etc.

Finally, GS1 India provided a detailed roadmap on how Indian Retail Industry could comply with Regulatory requirements and exchange product information amongst stakeholders through DataKart.

Further, the regulators also informed Industry on various Legal Metrology requirements, product recall, and e-commerce guidelines for food business operators.

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