PMA releases free guide on electronic data interchange

A new guide created by Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) supply chain efficiencies committee is designed to help companies in the fresh produce industry implement electronic data interchange (EDI). The “Implementation Guide for Fresh Produce Data Standards and Synchronization” uses globally-accepted terminology and best practices to identify fresh produce items as well as business locations – and it’s available for free on PMA’s website.

The guide is designed for companies that are voluntarily choosing to implement EDI. It describes the 58 of 202 “attributes” defined by global GS1 standards that specifically describe fresh produce items and locations. The 58 attributes include the 21 attributes required for the Produce Traceability Initiative. It also recommends best practices for using those GS1 standards to synchronize data between suppliers and retailers. For each of the produce-specific attributes, the guide provides definitions, examples and other considerations. The GS1 standards utilized in the guide are platform-neutral, and are compatible with third-party service providers.

For more information about EDI, contact PMA’s vice president of supply chain efficiencies Ed Treacy at etreacy@pma.com, or GS1 US’s Scott Brown at sbrown2@gs1us.org.