Product Recalls¶

GTIN1 provides a recall management system that surfaces safety information directly through the GS1 Digital Link resolver. When a product is recalled, consumers who scan its barcode or QR code are informed immediately, before they reach a product page.

How Recalls Work¶

A recall in GTIN1 represents an official product safety action, typically issued by a regulatory agency. Recalls can be scoped to three levels of specificity:

Trade item level - applies to every unit of a GTIN
Lot level - applies only to a specific production batch
Serial level - applies to a single serialized unit

This granularity means you can recall a single batch of a product without affecting every unit on the market.

Recall Properties¶

Status¶

Every recall has a status that controls whether it is actively enforced:

Status	Description
Active	The recall is in effect. Consumers scanning this product will see recall information.
Resolved	The recall has been addressed. Normal resolution behavior resumes.
Expired	The recall is no longer relevant. Normal resolution behavior resumes.

Only Active recalls affect Digital Link resolution.

Regulatory Agency¶

Each recall is attributed to the issuing regulatory body:

Agency	Full Name
FDA	U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FSIS	Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA)
CPSC	Consumer Product Safety Commission
Health Canada	Health Canada
Other	Other regulatory bodies

Severity Classification¶

Recalls are classified by severity, which determines how aggressively GTIN1 surfaces the recall to consumers:

Agency	High Severity	Moderate Severity	Low Severity
FDA	Class I	Class II	Class III
FSIS	Class I	Class II	Class III
CPSC	High	Medium	Low
Health Canada	High Risk	Medium Risk	Low Risk

High-severity recalls (FDA Class I, FSIS Class I, CPSC High, Health Canada High Risk) trigger a special override behavior in the Digital Link resolver, described below.

Jurisdictions¶

Recalls can be limited to specific countries using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. For example, a recall that applies only in the United States and Canada would have jurisdictions ["US", "CA"].

If no jurisdictions are specified, the recall applies globally. When the user's country is unknown, GTIN1 assumes the recall applies as a safety-first measure.

High-Severity Recall Override¶

When a consumer scans a product with an active high-severity recall, GTIN1 intercepts the normal Digital Link resolution and redirects the user to a recall landing page instead of the product page.

How the Override Works¶

A consumer scans the barcode or QR code on a product
The resolver checks for active, high-severity recalls matching the GTIN (and lot/serial if present)
If a high-severity recall is found, the consumer is redirected to a dedicated recall landing page
The landing page displays the recall summary, regulatory agency, and next steps

Override Priority¶

When multiple recalls exist for the same product, GTIN1 selects the most relevant one using two criteria:

Scope specificity - serial-level recalls take priority over lot-level, which take priority over trade-item-level
Classification priority - FDA Class I > FSIS Class I > Health Canada High Risk > CPSC High

This ensures that the most specific and most critical recall is always shown first.

Fail-Safe Design¶

The recall override system follows these safety principles:

If the user's country is unknown, recalls are assumed to apply
If a database error occurs during the recall check, the system fails open (allows normal resolution) rather than blocking access to the product

Recall Landing Page¶

The recall landing page is a purpose-built view that displays:

The recall summary and severity classification
The issuing regulatory agency
A link to the official recall notice (public link)
Next steps for the consumer (return instructions, refund information, disposal guidance)
The affected GTIN, and lot/serial if applicable

The page is designed for clarity and urgency, ensuring consumers understand the safety risk and know what action to take.

GS1 Link Type: `gs1:recallStatus`¶

GTIN1 includes recall status information in linkset responses for products with active recalls. When a trade item has an active recall, the linkset will include a gs1:recallStatus entry pointing to the recall landing page.

Example linkset entry:

{
  "linkset": [
    {
      "anchor": "https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678906",
      "https://gs1.org/voc/recallStatus": [
        {
          "href": "https://gtin1.com/resolver/recall/abc123?gtin=00012345678906",
          "title": "Recall Status: recall"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Applications that consume linkset data can use this entry to display recall warnings in their own interfaces.

Recall Ingestion¶

GTIN1 automatically ingests recall data from four government regulatory agencies:

FDA - U.S. Food and Drug Administration enforcement reports
FSIS - USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service recall notices
CPSC - Consumer Product Safety Commission recall announcements
Health Canada - Health Canada recalls and safety alerts

Each ingested recall is stored as a RecallEvent with normalized fields including title, description, severity, status, product identifiers, lot codes, geographic distribution, hazard description, and remedy information.

The ingestion process is idempotent: each recall is uniquely identified by its source system and source ID, so re-running ingestion updates existing records rather than creating duplicates.

Ingested Recall Data¶

Field	Description
Source system	Which agency issued the recall (FDA, FSIS, CPSC, Health Canada)
Source ID	The agency's unique identifier for the recall
Title	The official recall title
Severity	Class I (High), Class II (Moderate), Class III (Low), or Unknown
Status	Ongoing, Completed, Terminated, or Unknown
Recall date	When the recall was issued
Product identifiers	UPCs, NDCs, and other product codes mentioned in the recall
Lot codes	Affected batch/lot numbers
Distribution	Geographic distribution description
Jurisdictions	Countries where the recall applies
Company name	The recalling firm
Hazard	Description of the safety hazard
Remedy	What consumers should do
Public URL	Link to the official recall notice

Consumer Experience¶

Here is what happens when a consumer scans a recalled product:

High-Severity Recall (e.g., FDA Class I)¶

Consumer scans the barcode on a package
Instead of the normal product page, they see a recall landing page
The page clearly identifies the recall, the issuing agency, and the severity
Next steps are listed (e.g., "Return to store for a full refund" or "Dispose of the product immediately")
A link to the official government recall notice is provided

Lower-Severity Recall (e.g., FDA Class II or III)¶

Consumer scans the barcode
The normal product page loads, but a recall notice banner is displayed
The banner links to more information about the recall

Lot-Specific Recall¶

When a recall targets a specific lot, only scans that include the lot number (via AI 10 in the Digital Link URI) trigger the recall override. Scans of the same GTIN without a lot number will show the standard product page, since the system cannot confirm the scanned unit belongs to the affected batch.

https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678906/10/LOT2024A

In this example, if lot LOT2024A is recalled, the consumer sees the recall landing page. A scan of the same GTIN with a different lot number proceeds normally.

Managing Recalls¶

Creating a Recall¶

Recalls can be created through the GTIN1 dashboard for any trade item your organization owns. When creating a recall, you specify:

The scope (trade item, lot, or serial)
The status (Active, Resolved, or Expired)
The regulatory agency and severity classification
Jurisdictions where the recall applies
A summary of the recall
A public link to the official recall notice
Next steps for consumers

Resolving a Recall¶

When a recall is resolved, change its status to Resolved. This immediately stops the recall override and restores normal Digital Link resolution for the affected product. The recall record is preserved for audit purposes.

Active recalls override all other resolution behavior

An active high-severity recall takes precedence over custom redirect URLs, hosted pages, and all other link types. Consumer safety is the highest priority in the GS1 Digital Link ecosystem.