A yogurt recall in Canada named two products and 24 printed best before dates. Everything needed to scope it was already on the tub, but the only way to use it was to read a list and compare by eye.
A GS1 Digital Link is a URL on a product, but really it's a lookup. Here's how the resolver layer works, why it matters, and what brands should set up first.
A lot number tells you if a unit belongs to a recalled batch. A serial number tells you if it's the exact unit you sold. Return fraud lives entirely in the gap between those two questions.
A contaminated jalapeño lot from one Sinaloa grower turned up in roughly eighty finished products made by five separate companies. Finding which ones took weeks instead of a query - and a fifth company surfaced while we were fact-checking this piece.
413,793 KitKat bars were stolen in transit and Nestle asked consumers to manually check batch codes. Here's how a GS1 Digital Link resolver could have flagged every stolen bar automatically.