RMSCC Supply Chain Information Standard

Carton Label Fact Sheet PDF
Standard: Case/Carton Labels (barcodes)
Status: Released
Issue date: Oct 2005
Endorsement: Australian Meat Industry Language and Standards Committee, AUS-MEAT, Woolworths Group Limited, Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, Metcash Limited, GS1
Purpose:

The purpose of this standard is to define a consistent supply chain approach to the numbers and barcodes applied to cases or cartons of meat for ease of barcode scanning and data interoperability along the red meat supply chain.

The overall objective is to ensure that each participant along the red meat supply chain can easily extract the trade information about trade-level cases/ cartons of meat.

Each case/ carton is barcoded following the GS1 standards to ensure that each case/ carton is barcoded with a global unique number that provides the basis for traceability along the whole supply chain. For more information on the GS1 standards go to: gs1.org
Scope:

This RMSCC Supply Chain Information Standard is a voluntary meat industry standard. The use of this standard may be a commercial requirement for certain supply chains and may be required for participation in certain industry programs such as Meat Messaging.

This RMSCC Supply Chain Information Standard is limited to cases/ cartons of non-retail trade meat and meat-related products. This may include cases/ cartons that provide outer packaging for a group of retail ready products. The packaging size of the non-retail trade meat and meat related products may range from less than 1 kilogram through to bulk package in excess of 1000 kilograms.

The cases/ cartons of non-retail trade meat and meat-related products are intended for domestic and international export supply chains.

The packaging of cases/ cartons of non-retail trade meat and meat-related products include single use cardboard as well as reusable tubs or tote containers.

All packaging will be labelled with a suitable market compliant trade label (compliant to trade descriptions and AUS-MEAT National Accreditation Standards requirements) including a GS1-128 barcode with the information and encoding defined in this standard.
References:

AUS-MEAT trade descriptions and AUS-MEAT National Accreditation Standards requirements, GS1 GTIN standards, GS1 Application identifiers.
Details:

Carton label barcode numbers

Barcode Symbology

The Barcode symbology used in the Australian Red Meat Industry Standard Variable Weight Carton Label is GS1-128. The GS1-128 barcode allows secondary attribute information over and above primary item identification to be represented in the barcode. Application Identifiers (AIs) effectively act as prefixes for this information and define the meaning and structure of the embedded data which follows.

AIs allow you to represent attribute information such as batch numbers, serial numbers, expiry dates and weight in a standard format. This ensures that the attribute information encoded by one company can also be scanned and interpreted by any other company in the supply chain.

Concatenation

Concatenation (stringing AIs together) is an effective means for presenting multiple element strings in a single GS1-128 barcode and should be used to conserve space and optimise scanning operations.

Maximum Length

When concatenating AIs the maximum number of characters in the GS1-128 barcode symbol must not exceed 48. This includes Function Code 1 (FNC1) when used as a field separator but excludes auxiliary characters and the Symbol Check Character (Modulo 103).

The length of the GS1-128 barcode symbol must never exceed 165 mm, including the Quiet Zones (light margins).

Barcode Data including Application Identifiers (AIs)

Attribute Information Application Identifier (AI) Data Format Example
Item Identification (Primary identification of the cartoned product) (01) 14 digit number fixed length 99327111031766
9 - indicates that it a variable measure (weight) product
93271110 - GS1 Company Identification Prefix
3176 - Company product code or AUSMEAT code
6 - Check digit
Net Weight - Kilograms (310n)
n represents the decimal point indicator, which shows where the decimal point is located. 		6 digit number fixed length 000262
In this example as n = 1, start at the very right of the measurement data field and count to the left 1 place. The net weight is 26.2kg.
Packaging Date (13) 6 digit number fixed length (YYMMDD) 250417
In this example the packaging date is 17th April 2025.
Serial Number (21) Alpha or alpha-numeric number up to 20 characters in length 41457354
In this example an 8 digit numeric only serial number has been allocated.

Magnification

The size of the GS1-128 barcode symbol depends on:

  • The X-dimension (single bar width) chosen.
  • The number of characters encoded.
  • The number of non-numeric characters in the data.

For the meat industry it was determined that it would be primarily a hand scanning requirement. The allowable X-dimension range is 0.25mm to 0.495mm (magnifications between 25% and 48.7%).

For GS1-128 barcode symbols that are to be scanned in a General Distribution Environment (primarily automated scanning). The allowable X-dimension range is 0.495mm to 1.02mm (magnifications between 48.7% and 100%).

Height of Bars

In the meat industry the minimum bar height is 13 mm. For scanning in a General Distribution (automated scanning) environment, the minimum bar height for a GS1-128 barcode symbol is 32 mm.

Human Readable Interpretation

Print the human readable interpretation either above or below the symbol bars. Make sure the Application Identifiers (AIs) are clearly recognisable by placing them in brackets in the human readable interpretation only.

GS1-128 Symbol Dimensions

Magnification X-Dimension Width Height Quiet Zones
25% 0.25 34.04 13.00 2.54
30% 0.30 40.84 13.00 3.05
35% 0.36 47.65 13.00 3.56
40% 0.41 54.46 13.00 4.06
45% 0.46 61.26 13.00 4.57
50% 0.51 68.07 32.00 5.08
55% 0.56 74.88 32.00 5.59
60% 0.61 81.68 32.00 6.10
65% 0.66 88.49 32.00 6.60
70% 0.71 95.30 32.00 7.11
75% 0.76 102.11 32.00 7.62
80% 0.81 108.91 32.00 8.13
85% 0.86 115.72 32.00 8.64
90% 0.91 122.53 32.00 9.14
95% 0.97 129.33 32.00 9.65
100% 1.02 136.14 32.00 10.16

Note: In the heading of this table, Width = Width of bar code symbol excluding Quiet Zones (Light Margins), Height = Bar Height, Quiet Zones = Light Margins.

All measurements are in millimetres.

These dimensions are only indicative of a GS1-128 Bar Code Symbol with one Application Identifier and a GTIN-14 without any attribute data, e.g. (01)09312345678907.

Comments and Feedback:

Comments and feedback about this standard are sort from industry. This includes any requests for any enhancements or changes. Any submitted comments, feedback or change requests are reviewed by the Work Group following the RMSCC Core Principles and the RMSCC Standards Development model. To submit comments, feedback or change requests click on this link: RMSCC Feedback and Change Requests.
Further information:

GS1 Australia in conjunction with meat industry representatives including, MLA, AUS-MEAT, AQIS and AMIC developed a set of numbering and bar-coding guidelines for the Australian Red Meat Industry. A copy of the guidelines or for further assistance on meat industry bar coding please contact GS1 Australia on 1300 227 263 or visiting gs1au.org