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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, NY. Later, the second company receives that container at a warehouse.

This is a Ship Event, as it represents the physical movement of goods from one address to another.
It also represents a change of ownership as it moves from one company’s possession to another.

The shipping company (the supplier) populates details such as:

  • Ship From Location: Physical address, owning party, container number
  • Product Identifiers and Lot Identifiers
  • Date of Departure, etc.

and posts this information to the buyer’s system.

The receiving company (the buyer) then registers a Receive Event, capturing details such as:

  • Physical Location Received
  • Date of Receipt
  • Product Identifiers, Lot Identifiers, Quantities, etc.

The parallel records of Ship and Receive Events provide downstream context about the business act of moving goods between locations and organizations.

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 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 configure 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 lot or serial-specific traceability data and related business activities (receiving, processing, harvesting, etc.) downstream to buyers and retailers using EPCIS-compliant systems.

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

  • 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 evolving regulations such as:

  • FDA’s FSMA Rule 204 (U.S.)
  • EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)
  • Digital Product Passport (DPP)

alongside buyer and consumer demand for visibility, companies must exchange data using standardized formats.
To meet these diverse requirements, interoperable traceability systems are essential.

Benefits of Wholechain’s EPCIS Support

  • Regulatory compliance for suppliers exporting to regulated markets
  • 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 removes barriers between systems while maintaining event-level traceability and product provenance across 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 extends GS1’s EPCIS 2.0, building upon it through Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) and Key Data Elements (KDEs) — enabling verifiable, end-to-end traceability from harvest to retail.

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 (e.g., vessel data, harvest method, landing port, seafood certifications).
  • Structuring data around GDST-defined CTEs (e.g., harvest, aggregate, ship, receive, disaggregate, transform).
  • Allowing non-Wholechain retailers and buyers to receive information via 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 suppliers
  • Reliably send that data to buyers, regardless of system differences
  • Achieve global interoperability, regulatory compliance, and transparent product histories

This ensures every product’s story remains verifiable, connected, and trusted throughout its journey across complex, multi-platform supply chains.