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Wholechain and EPCIS 2.0 Integration

What is EPCIS?

EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) is a global GS1 standard designed to enable the exchange of event data related to the movement and status of products throughout the supply chain.
It provides a standardized framework for capturing, sharing, and querying data about physical objects at key points in the supply chain — ensuring traceability, transparency, and visibility across industries.

Key Event Data Elements

EPCIS event data typically includes information about:

  • What: The objects involved in the event (e.g., product IDs, lot numbers).
  • When: The time the event occurred.
  • Where: The location where the event happened (e.g., shipment, receipt location).
  • Why: The business context of the event (e.g., a shipping or receiving activity).

By capturing this data in a consistent format, EPCIS enables companies to share information seamlessly with their partners, ensuring interoperability and enhancing supply chain visibility.

Example Use Case

A shipping container packed with multiple products, each consisting of multiple production codes is loaded on a truck and shipped from a company in Chicago, IL to a company in New York City, New York. At a later time, the second company receives that container at a warehouse.

This is a Ship Event as it meets the definition of the physical movement of goods from one address to another. This Ship Event also represents the change of ownership as it moves from one company's possession to another. The company providing the Ship Event to their buyer populates the information for the Ship From Location (e.g., physical address, owning party, container number, product identifiers, lot identifiers, date of departure, etc.) and posts this to the second company's system.

The receiving company, or in this case, the buyer, obtains this information by querying the post made by the first company, their supplier. In order to continue the chain of traceability, the buyer, then, must register a Receive Event, registering the physical location the goods were received, the date of receipt, the product identifiers, lot identifiers, quantities, etc.

The parallel records of the Ship and Receive Events provide downstream context around the business-act of moving goods between two locations and, in this case, between two companies.

Wholechain’s EPCIS 2.0 Implementation

Wholechain supports interoperable data exchange through the GS1 EPCIS 2.0 standard, enabling transparent, event-based traceability across global supply chains.

By adopting EPCIS 2.0, Wholechain ensures that traceability data can be shared with external partners such as retailers, processors, or certification systems—regardless of which traceability platform they use.

How Wholechain Supports EPCIS

When a Wholechain user (such as a supplier or exporter) records a Ship Event, they can choose to setup their account to automatically send EPCIS 2.0 event data to other EPCIS compliant systems.

Wholechain supports the following EPCIS event types:

  • ObjectEvent
  • AggregationEvent
  • TransformationEvent

This interoperable approach allows Wholechain users to send their lot or serial-specific traceability data and its correlated business activities (receiving, processing, harvesting, etc.) downstream to buyers and retailers that utilize EPCIS-compliant systems.

All transmitted data follows the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) for consistency, including fields like:

  • eventTime
  • bizStep (e.g., shipping, receiving)
  • epcList (identifiers)
  • readPoint and bizLocation
  • disposition
  • certification or traceability references

Supported Features

Wholechain’s EPCIS implementation supports:

  • JSON-LD and XML formats
  • Secure API key–based authentication
  • Digital link endpoints for direct event sharing
  • Integration with FSMA 204 and GDST traceability frameworks

Why Wholechain Supports EPCIS

Traceability interoperability is no longer optional. With FDA's FSMA Rule 204, EU's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and Digital Product Passport (DPP), on top of buyer and consumer demand for greater visibility around supply chains and product origins, companies must exchange data in standardized formats. In order to fulfill the diversity of requirements, companies must utilize interoperable traceability solutions.

Benefits of Wholechain’s EPCIS Support

  • Regulatory compliance for suppliers exporting to regulated markets
  • Seamless cross-platform visibility between partners using different systems
  • Reduced data silos through open, standards-based interoperability
  • Industry-wide collaboration powered by globally accepted standards

This approach eliminates barriers between systems while maintaining event-level traceability and product provenance throughout the supply chain.

Alignment with GDST (Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability)

Wholechain is a GDST verified traceability solution for the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) standard, versions 1.1 and 1.2. The GDST framework is an extension of GS1's EPCIS 2.0 and builds upon EPCIS through the development of Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) and Key Data Elements (KDEs), enabling verifiable, end-to-end traceability from harvest to retail for adopters.

Wholechain’s EPCIS + GDST Integration

Wholechain’s EPCIS data exchange supports GDST by:

  • Capturing both general KDEs (e.g., species, species code, country of origin, product form) and seafood-specific KDEs (such as vessel data, harvest method, landing port, and seafood-specific certifications.
  • Structuring data around GDST-defined CTEs (e.g., harvest, aggregate, ship, receive, disaggregate, transform, etc.).
  • Allowing non-Wholechain retailers and buyers to receive this information through standard EPCIS event payloads.

By adhering to GDST and EPCIS together, Wholechain ensures global seafood traceability interoperability, connecting producers, processors, distributors, and retailers under one unified framework.

Summary

Wholechain’s support of EPCIS 2.0 and GDST empowers any stakeholder to receive standardized traceability data directly from their suppliers and reliably send that data to their buyers regardless of what system EPCIS-compliant systems utilize. This enables global interoperability, regulatory compliance, and transparent product histories across complex, multi-platform supply chains, ensuring that the story of every product remains verifiable, connected, and trusted throughout its journey.