GS1 Standards are the Missing Piece in EUDR Compliance - EUDRtrace Gets It Right

26 Jun 2026

As the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) moves from concept to enforcement, companies across the globe are scrambling to prove their products are traceable and sourced from deforestation-free land. That means gathering detailed data, often involving millions of transactions and interactions across complex supply chains.

The problem is most supply chains speak different “data languages.” Farmers record data differently than transport providers; origin information doesn’t look like retail data; and legacy traceability tools store information in siloed formats. Companies often try to patch details like these together with proprietary or platform-specific structures, but these approaches fail the EUDR’s requirements for transparency and interoperability.

For this reason, GS1 data standards are not just “nice to have,” but essential for compliance. And it’s why EUDRtrace is fundamentally stronger than alternative traceability solutions that don’t use GS1 standards to structure and communicate supply chain data.

What Are GS1 Standards?

GS1 is the global organization behind the global system that gives every product, shipment, and location a unique and structured identity. The GS1 standards allow supply chains to exchange information in a common language, using familiar benchmarks like:

•	GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), which uniquely identifies products.
•	GLN (Global Location Number), which uniquely identifies factories, farms, mills, facilities, etc.
•	EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services), the event-based data standard that tells you what happened, where it happened, when it happened, and why.
•	GS1 Digital Link, the web-native standard to connect product identities and traceability data.

GS1 standards have long been recognized across logistics, retail, healthcare, food safety, sustainability and together form the backbone of end-to-end traceability. Now, they also form an important foundation for EUDR reporting.

Why GS1 Matters for the EUDR

EUDR compliance requires proving origin, land use, geolocation data, transformation steps, and supply chain custody, and doing it in a way that’s interoperable (compatible across systems), auditable, and trusted. GS1 standards make that possible in several ways:

1) Standardized Identification

The GS1 standards provide a globally unique way to identify products (GTIN), facilities and farms (GLN), and shipments and events. Aside from providing convenience, this eliminates confusion, duplication, and “fragmented” data. For EUDR reporting specifically, this means a documented chain of custody that customs authorities can verify.

2) Seamless Data Sharing

The EUDR requires everyone from farmers to global retailers to exchange consistent data. With GS1 standards, a system no longer needs to translate, reformat, or reinterpret data.‍ Everyone speaks the same traceability language.

EUDRtrace leverages GS1 standards to capture events, attach geolocation, connect supply chain partners, and automate reporting. By contrast, compliance systems built on non-GS1 formats require custom integrations, mappings, and manual interpretation, all of which introduce delays, errors, and audit risks.

3) Scalable Efficiency

EUDRtrace uses EPCIS to format all captured events and geolocations, and GS1 Digital Link as the reference format for generating web links that give partners access to traceability and compliance information - enabling fluid communication across the supply chain and automated reporting.

4) Built‑In Auditability

When EUDRtrace records data, it structures it in a globally recognized format.  This will make the information readable and understandable at all stages, simplify proof of compliance, and speed up control processes--from internal audit to DDS verification to customs clearance.

5) Future-Proof by Design

GS1 data standards are the foundation for emerging supply chain regulations making their data compatible and usable for different frameworks, like the EU Digital Product Passport. Systems built on GS1 are uniquely positioned to adapt to these future developments, while others may eventually have to be rebuilt.

EUDRtrace vs. the Competition

Most traceability platforms use proprietary data structures. They build integrations on a per-client basis, which requires manual mapping of events and identifiers. They are also hard to scale across multi-country submissions, and, importantly, can’t easily connect with EU TRACES and emergent regulatory systems.

EUDRtrace takes a different approach by natively integrating GS1 standards. What may look like technical preferences amount to practical reporting advantages: compatibility, auditability, and scalability, with built‑in quality assurance and regulatory readiness. Intertek predicts that GS1 will become the standard for compliant EUDR submissions as reporting enforcement tightens, and ‍especially once customs authorities realize that GS1 based submissions reduce errors and data mismatches. Competing systems may eventually need to retrofit their platforms.

Conquering the EUDR Data Challenge

It may be tempting to think of the EUDR as a mere document collection exercise, but it poses real data integrity challenges that will distinguish higher-performing organizations. To meet the challenge successfully, supply chains need:

• • Standardized identifiers
• • Compatible data sharing
• • Efficient data collection
• • Audit-ready records
• • Adaptive architecture
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• EUDRtrace uniquely enables these through GS1 standards. This makes it the most credible, scalable, and standards-aligned platform for real-world EUDR compliance.
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• Do you have questions about the EUDR and its reporting requirements? Are you looking for strategic advice on gathering your supply chain data? Contact the experts at Intertek Assuris. We’re here to help!