Your product has four GTINs. You supplied one.
The consumer unit is the one every brand has. The retailer orders cases and slots pallets — and a record without those levels can be accepted, ranged, and still impossible to raise a purchase order against.
- gtin
- 5012345678900 · consumer unit
- description
- CRUNCHY ALMOND BUTTER 340G
- brand
- Groveland
- net_weight
- 340
- case_gtin
- not supplied
- case_dimensions
- not supplied
- allergen_matrix
- not supplied
- nutrition_per_100g
- not supplied
GDSN attributes required · GPC 10000159
- Vertical
- Food & beverage
- Specimen
- Almond butter 340 g
- Standards
- GDSN · EU FIC
- Classification
- GPC 10000159
- Completeness
- 4 / 62
One GTIN is one quarter of a product
A retailer orders cases and stores pallets. Without GTINs at every packaging level, the item cannot be ordered, received or slotted.
"340" is not a weight
It is a number with no unit code. GDSN validation rejects it, and no downstream system can convert or compare it.
No allergen matrix at all
Not a clean matrix — an absent one. This product contains almonds and runs on a line that also handles peanuts.
Crunchy Almond Butter, 340 g
- gtin
- 5012345678900 · consumer unit
- description
- CRUNCHY ALMOND BUTTER 340G
- brand
- Groveland
- net_weight
- 340
- case_gtin
- — not supplied —
- case_dimensions
- — not supplied —
- allergen_matrix
- — not supplied —
- nutrition_per_100g
- — not supplied —
4 of 8 fields empty · the allergen field is the dangerous one
One GTIN · no hierarchy · an empty allergen field that reads as safe in every spreadsheet view
4
Attributes present in the supplier record as received.
62
Attributes required for publication in this GPC brick.
A validating network sits between you and the buyer.
This is the structural difference between grocery and everywhere else you sell.
A grocery item exists at several packaging levels simultaneously — consumer unit, inner, case and pallet — each with its own GTIN, dimensions, gross weight and quantity-of-next-lower-level.
The consumer unit is the one brands always have. The case is the one the retailer actually orders, and the pallet is the one the distribution centre slots. Missing hierarchy is the single most common reason a listing is accepted and then cannot be ordered.
The consumer unit. Scanned at the till
Shelf-ready outer, where used
The ordering unit. GTIN-14, indicator digit 1–8
Logistics unit, often SSCC rather than GTIN
Required at every level, in mm, gross and net
Which level a retailer can actually buy
Six ways a grocery record fails after it was accepted.
Accepted, unorderable
The listing passes, the buyer wants it, and purchasing cannot raise a PO because no case GTIN exists. This surfaces weeks after the range review, when the launch window has closed.
The silent rejection code
GDSN returns a CIC rejection with a structured reason nobody on the commercial team can read. It sits in an inbox while everyone assumes the retailer is slow.
Market-mismatched allergens
A record built for the EU is published to a US recipient. Sesame is not declared because it was not required when the record was authored, and now it is.
The blank that reads as safe
An empty allergen field looks like "no allergens" in every spreadsheet view. It means nobody asked. This distinction is the one that produces recalls.
Nutrition basis mismatch
Per-portion values that do not reconcile with per-100 g values at the declared portion size. Retailer validators check this arithmetic; most brands do not.
Promotional pack drift
A seasonal or multipack variant is created as a new consumer unit but inherits the parent's hierarchy, so cases are ordered against the wrong GTIN.
An empty allergen field and a declared “contains no allergens” render identically in a spreadsheet, and are entirely different things. One is a statement somebody is accountable for; the other means nobody asked. We treat the empty field as unknown and hold it, which is slower, more annoying, and the only defensible behaviour.
What the first five weeks actually contain.
Note that nothing here requires your suppliers to change how they send you files.
Hierarchy audit
We measure how many of your items have complete packaging hierarchies with dimensions and gross weights at every level, per target market.
An item export · your recipient list · no GDSN access needed
Allergen and nutrition resolution
Matrices and nutrition declarations are extracted from artwork, specifications and certificates of analysis, with a source recorded per value.
Artwork files and supplier specs, in whatever format you hold
Pre-validation
Records are validated against the data pool's rules and each recipient's required attribute set before publication, so CIC rejections are resolved in advance.
Read access to your data pool, or a test publication target
Recipient-aware publication
Each retailer receives a record validated for their market and requirements. Rejections arrive as named missing fields rather than codes.
Nothing — this is the part that stops being your problem
How many of your items can actually be ordered?
Send an item export. We will measure packaging hierarchy completeness and allergen declaration coverage against the recipients you publish to, and return the list of items that would pass listing and fail ordering.
One item export · No data pool access needed · Report in 10 working days