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Which barcodes should I use for outer cases?

Typically for an outer case you will use an ITF-14 or GS1-128 Barcode Symbol, depending on your trading partner's requirements.

ITF-14 Barcode Symbol

The ITF-14 barcode symbol is traditionally used on outer case packaging within the supply chain. The symbol is encoded with a 14-digit GTIN which uses a leading digit in front of a unique 13-digit GTIN. A 0 is usually used as the leading digit in the Irish market.

You should never use the 13-digit GTIN assigned to a product as the GTIN for an outer case. Each GTIN must be unique.

The ITF-14 barcode symbol has been adapted for printing on poor quality packaging material and is surrounded by a bearer bar (the dark box surrounding the symbol).

 

GS1-128

The GS1-128 is used to encode a 14-digit GTIN along with other information through the use of Application Identifiers.

Application Identifiers are 2 to 4 digit codes that tell the scanning computer what information is encoded into the symbol. Application Identifiers allow you to include distinct data, such as best before date, batch/lot number, and other information, into barcodes on your outer case packaging.

You can read more about Application Identifiers in our article What are Application Identifiers?