eccnet item certification frequently asked questionseccnet item certification frequently asked...

ECCnet Item Certification

Frequently Asked Questions

For GS1 Canada Subscribers

Version 2.0

ECCnet Item Certification Frequently Asked Questions

The information contained in this document is privileged and confidential and may otherwise be exempt from

disclosure under applicable law. It is intended solely for the entity with whom GS1 Canada has contracted for the

purposes set forth in such contract. Use of the information in this document is for the designated recipient only and

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immediately.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Published in Canada February 2014

Copyright © 2014 GS1 Canada. All rights reserved.

GS1 Canada 1500 Don Mills Road, Suite 800 Toronto, Ontario, M3B 3L1 P 416.510.8039 P 1.800.567.7084 F 416.510.1916 E [email protected]

www.gs1ca.org

3

Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6

1. What is ECCnet Item Certification? .........................................................................................6

2. What is the purpose of this service?........................................................................................6

3. What business issue is being addressed? ..............................................................................6

4. How will this service help my business?..................................................................................6

5. Who is driving this service? .....................................................................................................7

6. Why does my organization have to participate in this service? ..............................................7

7. What specific labeling information is being collected? ............................................................7

8. What happens to this data after I certify a product? ................................................................7

9. When will this data be available to consumers?......................................................................7

10. Is this nutrition certification required for all food items, or just for Grocery items? ...............7

Get Started ...................................................................................................................................... 8

11. How do I subscribe to ECCnet Item Certification? ................................................................8

12. Which loading option should I use? .......................................................................................8

13. What’s involved for my organization? ....................................................................................9

14. How much will this initiative cost my organization?...............................................................9

15. Which browsers are supported by the Item Certification tool? .............................................9

Why is ECCnet Item Certification not supported on Windows Internet Explorer 8? ...............9

I currently use IE8. How can I use ECCnet Item Certification 2.0? .......................................10

How do I upgrade to IE 9 or IE 10? ........................................................................................10

Our corporate policy does not allow me to upgrade to IE9 or to use other web browsers.

How can I use ECCnet Item Certification 2.0? .......................................................................10

Using the Service .......................................................................................................................... 10

16. Where do I sign in to use ECCnet Item Certification? .........................................................10

17. I’m having trouble signing in. ...............................................................................................10

18. How do I start certifying my products? ................................................................................10

19. Can I automate the certification of my products? ................................................................10

20. What happens to this product data? Can an end user edit or copy it without my

knowledge? ................................................................................................................................11

21. Will my ECCnet Registry product data continue to be published to my trading partners

even though I have not yet certified it? ......................................................................................11

4 Copyright © 2014 GS1 Canada


22. How do I change my ECCnet loading option? .....................................................................11

23. How soon after I change my ECCnet loading option does the loading option come into

effect? .........................................................................................................................................11

24. Why is there a nutrition capture fee if I’m manually entering the data in ECCnet and I’m

already paying the loading fees for ECCnet? ............................................................................11

25. If a certified product needs a new image due to a packaging change (no data change)

then – after we send it for image capture – will that image be auto updated in Item

Certification? ..............................................................................................................................12

26. If an image is updated in ECCnet Item Certification, will we have to re-certify that product

because of the image change?..................................................................................................12

27. Any time that there are changes made to our nutrition data via ECCnet, will we have to re-

certify the product?.....................................................................................................................12

28. If we provide our nutritional data via ECCnet and there is already a planogram image for

the product on file, then do we still need to submit a product sample to I&V? .........................12

29. How can I report an issue or suggest an improvement to this service? .............................12

30. How do I find out more about using this tool? .....................................................................12

31. Which products should I review using ECCnet Item Certification? .....................................12

32. What are the product statuses? ...........................................................................................12

33. What is the origin of the data and images captured for this service? .................................13

34. Where does the data from the “Detail” page come from? ...................................................13

35. What is a GPC code?? ........................................................................................................13

36. Why do some nutrition fields show “0”, and others are blank? ...........................................13

37. Why are only certain allergens listed? .................................................................................14

38. Government agencies sometimes request changes to our product labels. How will this

service help me with these requests?........................................................................................14

39. Why are certain fields view-only and uneditable? ...............................................................14

40. How do I tell which fields are editable? ...............................................................................14

41. I do not want to certify the product because I notice an error. What are my next steps? ..14

42. I found an error in the nutrition data after I certified the product. How can I fix such errors?

....................................................................................................................................................15

43. If my product is rebranded but its nutrition data hasn’t changed, does the label content

need to get captured again? ......................................................................................................15

44. How do I load new products to ECCnet Item Certification? ................................................15

45. What is the difference between a Multiple-Version product and an Archived product? .....15



Introduction

1. What is ECCnet Item Certification?

ECCnet Item Certification is an online, central source of accurate and trusted product-related

nutrition data and images. This information is certified by brand owners and then made

available to trading partners using a publication and subscription process consistent with the

trading partner experience in ECCnet Registry, Canada’s national product registry.

ECCnet Item Certification is intended for consumer use.

2. What is the purpose of this service?

The purpose of ECCnet Item Certification is to enable business to manage their brand by

sharing authorized product nutrition data and images.

This service provides a true source of accurate nutrition data. Brand owners use this service to

certify product data as it relates to the latest version of their products. Many products have

multiple versions, with varying ingredients, allergens, or nutrition components. This service

makes it possible to publish and access the latest marketing and nutrition information.

3. What business issue is being addressed?

Canadian businesses are facing increasing demands – from trading partners, consumers and

governments – for marketing and nutrition information about their products; however, there is

currently no publicly accessible single source of truth where manufacturers can publish

accurate nutrition information for their products. As a result, trading partners, consumers and

governments turn to third party sources to access product information, which has not been

validated and is often inaccurate. This inaccurate product information places brand owners at

risk.

For example, research conducted by GS1 Canada and Capgemini Canada Inc. confirmed:

Only 9% of mobile phone scans returned the correct product description when compared

with the brand owner’s source data.

75% of scans returned absolutely no product information at all and 87% of scans returned

no product image.

Even when all of the information was returned, product information was incorrect 1 in 5

times.

4. How will this service help my business?

ECCnet Item Certification enables your business to:

Ensure that accurate information about its products is communicated

Provide perpetually-cleansed item level nutrition information and images to trading

partners


Access a 24/7 central source of product nutrition data and images for sales, training, and

other operational functions

Populate eCommerce platforms with the information that your consumers demand.

5. Who is driving this service?

Through the leadership and collaboration of the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), Canadian

Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG), and Food and Consumer Products of Canada

(FCPC), the Canadian retail grocery industry has launched an item level nutritional product

data initiative. This initiative establishes the highly-demanded, single source of truth for

marketing and nutrition information through the ECCnet Item Certification service.

6. Why does my organization have to participate in this service?

Your grocery retail partner has requested your participation to certify the accuracy of your

data. Certification is in your interest to ensure that your product data is accurate, to better

control your brand, and to safeguard your brand reputation.

7. What specific labeling information is being collected?

ECCnet Item Certification requires product/brand owners to certify data accuracy in the

following areas:

Product details

Nutrition facts (as it relates to the nutrition panel on the product)

Ingredients (as it relates to the ingredients label on the product)

A subset of common allergens

Product Certifications (kosher, organic, Halal, ACS, MSC).

Product Claims (optional attributes to record statements as marked on the package)

8. What happens to this data after I certify a product?

Product nutrition data, once certified, will be published to your trading partners in accordance

with your existing ECCnet Registry publication rules.

9. When will this data be available to consumers?

GS1 Canada does not make your nutrition data directly available to consumers. However, your

retail trading partners will be able to leverage your certified data to address the demand of

their customers.

10. Is this nutrition certification required for all food items, or just for

Grocery items?

At this time, the service is available only for the Grocery sector.



Get Started

11. How do I subscribe to ECCnet Item Certification?

As a GS1 Canada subscriber, your organization is eligible to subscribe to the ECCnet Item

Certification service.

Follow these steps to subscribe to this service:

a) The Catalogue Captain must use ECCnet ProSYNC to designate an ECCnet Item

Certification Administrator. (The Administrator will be responsible for managing your

organization’s ECCnet Item Certification processes)

b) The Administrator is sent an email containing a subscription link. This link will direct

them to a page where they can subscribe to ECCnet Item Certification, accept the

service agreement and specify how data will be loaded.

12. Which loading option should I use?

When you sign up for ECCnet Item Certification, you must decide how your products’ nutrition

data will be loaded. Review your current ECCnet Registry data loading procedures and

identify your state of readiness to load nutrition information electronically to ECCnet Registry.

You have two options. Note that both of these options require scanning by ECCnet I&V

services, with a service fee of $10 per product.

Option 1: Use your existing data loading process

Use this option if you are providing, or plan to provide, nutrition data electronically through

ECCnet Registry.

Your organization must have nutrition data already available and validated within your

business applications and will use existing data loading tools to load the information to ECCnet

Registry directly. The nutrition information will be combined with your images submitted

through ECCnet I&V services into ECCnet Item Certification for your certification. Additional

nutrition attributes will need to be specified within ECCnet Item Certification.

Option 2: Use ECCnet Image & Validation (I&V) services

Use this option if you do not currently plan to provide nutrition data electronically through

ECCnet Registry.

Your organization may not have nutrition data readily available electronically; therefore you

can leverage ECCnet I&V services to digitally capture nutrition data from images of product

labels. The nutrition information will be combined with your images and uploaded into ECCnet

Item Certification for your certification.

http://www.gs1ca.org/DesignateAdministratorProSYNC.pdf

http://www.gs1ca.org/DesignateAdministratorProSYNC.pdf


13. What’s involved for my organization?

The Item Certification service requires individuals in your organization to fulfill the following

roles and responsibilities:

Existing Role Responsibilities

ECCnet Registry Catalogue Captain

Assigns an Administrator to manage the ECCnet Item Certification service

The following roles will need to be created and assigned:

New Role Responsibilities

ECCnet Item Certification Administrator

Manages ECCnet Item Certification processes, including adding and removing approvers and reviewers

Reviewer Validates all product images and related product information, including nutrition facts, ingredients, allergens and product certifications, for every product listed in the service

Approver Certifies product details after they are reviewed by reviewers. Upon certification, the nutrition data for a product is ready to be published to retail partners.

GS1 Canada recommends that a different individual be assigned to each of these roles;

however, one individual may hold more than one of the roles of Administrator, Reviewer and/or

Approver.

14. How much will this initiative cost my organization?

As a not-for-profit organization, GS1 Canada operates on a cost-recovery basis. Fees are

based on an organization’s annual sales revenue in Canadian dollars. Fees are also based on

augmenting existing industry protocol for Image & Validation services with product nutrition

information, based on a product submission. Fees will be reassessed on a periodic basis to

ensure continued cost recovery. The Fee Schedule can be found at

http://www.gs1ca.org/EICS/fees.asp.

15. Which browsers are supported by the Item Certification tool?

Supported browsers for this tool include Internet Explorer 9 and 10, Google Chrome and

Mozilla Firefox.

Why is ECCnet Item Certification not supported on Windows Internet Explorer 8?

Microsoft support for Internet Explorer version 8 ends on April 8, 2014, along with other

components of the Windows XP operating system. This means that Microsoft will no longer fix

bugs, even critical bugs that might cause the browser to incorrectly render web pages. These

http://www.gs1ca.org/EICS/fees.asp



errors might not be correctable by GS1 Canada, resulting in an unpredictable browsing

experience for our clients.

I currently use IE8. How can I use ECCnet Item Certification 2.0?

You must install a supported browser. Fortunately, there are multiple popular alternatives.

Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 9 and 10, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are all

internationally popular alternatives.

How do I upgrade to IE 9 or IE 10?

Download and install Internet Explorer 9 from windows.microsoft.com. (Search for “internet

explorer 9 download”).

Our corporate policy does not allow me to upgrade to IE9 or to use other web browsers. How can I use ECCnet Item Certification 2.0?

GS1 Canada is assessing page rendering issues with Internet Explorer 8.

Using the Service

16. Where do I sign in to use ECCnet Item Certification?

Go to http://itemcertification.gs1ca.org.

17. I’m having trouble signing in.

Reviewers and Approvers: Contact your organization’s ECCnet Item Certification

Administrator.

Administrators: Email [email protected].

18. How do I start certifying my products?

Sign in to the ECCnet Item Certification. You will see a list of your organization’s products.

From the Status column:

Reviewers: Look for products with “Verified” status. Click the Product description to

review details for each product. Review all product information and images for these

products to ensure they are accurate and complete. When you finish your review and

submit the product for approval, the status changes to “Reviewed.”

Approvers: Look for products with “Reviewed” status. Click the Product description to

review details for each product. If you are satisfied that all details are accurate, go to the

“Certify” tab to certify the product.

19. Can I automate the certification of my products?

The objective of this service is to ensure that data and images are certified by the brand

owner. This requires the brand owner to individually verify the data and images. This ensures

that accurate and complete data is made available to trading partners.

http://itemcertification.gs1ca.org/

mailto:[email protected]


20. What happens to this product data? Can an end user edit or copy

it without my knowledge?

ECCnet Item Certification shares the guiding principles of ECCnet Registry:

The Brand Owners own the data.

Published data will only be made available to trading partners in accordance with pre-

existing publishing rules already in place in accordance to ECCnet Registry rules.

Brand Owners are responsible for data accuracy and any liability that they may incur from

use of the data they certified. They are responsible for arbitrating any questions that may

be asked about that data.

Brand Owners are only responsible for certifying their data. Once their data is certified

and transferred to trading partner(s), the Brand Owner’s liability ends. Should a trading

partner leverage the certified data in an unintended way or change the data, it is not the

responsibility of the certifying Brand Owner.

21. Will my ECCnet Registry product data continue to be published to

my trading partners even though I have not yet certified it?

Yes. The product data that you publish to your trading partners through ECCnet Registry (for

example, core supply chain information) is not affected by product status in ECCnet Item

Certification.

Item Certification data (for example, nutrition data) is not published to your trading partner until

after it is certified.

Your ECCnet Item Certification data is published in accordance to ECCnet Registry publication

rules you have set up with your trading partners, through a separate and distinct publishing

process.

22. How do I change my ECCnet loading option?

The Item Certification Administrator logs in to MyGS1ca.org and selects a data loading option.

23. How soon after I change my ECCnet loading option does the

loading option come into effect?

The change that you make to the loading option is effective immediately for all new data

loading. If you have data that is in process, it continues in the existing process and is loaded

into the system. For example data that is already coming from Imaging & Verification service,

will be admitted to the system.

24. Why is there a nutrition capture fee if I’m manually entering the

data in ECCnet and I’m already paying the loading fees for ECCnet?

There is a fee for capturing an image of the Nutrition Facts panel.



25. If a certified product needs a new image due to a packaging

change (no data change) then – after we send it for image capture –

will that image be auto updated in Item Certification?

In ECCnet Item Certification version 2.0, a new version is created for that product showing the

new image.

26. If an image is updated in ECCnet Item Certification, will we have to

re-certify that product because of the image change?

Yes. You must certify that the claims on the product packaging are recorded accurately in

ECCnet Item Certification.

27. Any time that there are changes made to our nutrition data via

ECCnet, will we have to re-certify the product?

Yes. Any time you change nutrition data, you must certify that the product contents is

accurately recorded in the nutrition panel.

28. If we provide our nutritional data via ECCnet and there is already a

planogram image for the product on file, then do we still need to

submit a product sample to I&V?

Yes. If values in the Nutrition Facts panel are different, you must either submit sample

packaging or send a PDF scan of the packaging.

29. How can I report an issue or suggest an improvement to this

service?

We value your feedback. Please e-mail ItemCertificationSupport@gs1ca,org.Using the Tool

Interface

30. How do I find out more about using this tool?

There’s a user guide and other information available here: http://www.gs1ca.org/e/help/

31. Which products should I review using ECCnet Item Certification?

Reviewers: Search for products with the status “Verified.”

Approvers: Search for products with the status “Reviewed.”

32. What are the product statuses?

Loaded: Product data and related images have been loaded, are being reviewed by GS1

Canada for data consistency, and will soon be made available for your review and set to

status as verified.

mailto:ItemCertificationSupport@gs1ca,org

http://www.gs1ca.org/e/help/


Verified: Product data and related images have been successfully loaded into ECCnet

Item Certification and are now ready for Review. Reviewers are sent an email notifying

them to sign into the service to review the products.

Rejected: Product is rejected by the Reviewer due to errors that require updates to view-

only fields or need further investigation by GS1 Canada.

Reviewed: Product data and related images are ready for Approvers. Approvers are sent

an email notifying them that products have been reviewed and are ready for the

Approvers.

Verified Rejected: Product is rejected by the Approver due to errors that require updates

or need further investigation by the Reviewer.

Certified: Product is certified by an Approver.

33. What is the origin of the data and images captured for this

service?

As part of a jumpstart process, GS1 Canada initially captured item level marketing and

nutrition data and images (national brand and private label products) for 37,000 products and

loaded this information to ECCnet Item Certification for brand owner certification.

34. Where does the data from the “Detail” page come from?

The data on the Detail tab is taken from information collected by ECCnet I&V services. If you

find discrepancies in this data, please reject the product so that ECCnet I&V services can

investigate. Include rejection comments that clearly outline the problem.

35. What is a GPC code??

Global Product Classification (GPC) is the chosen GS1 standard mandatory classification

system for the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN). Sellers and buyers need to

group products the same way globally to ensure effective data synchronization in the GDSN,

to enable product search, view, and validation, as well as publication and subscription match.

Only products classified according to GPC will be registered in the GS1 Global Registry.

The ECCnet Item Certification tool provides the following link, which will help you determine

your product GPC: http://www.gs1.org/1/productssolutions/gdsn/gpc/browser/index.html

36. Why do some nutrition fields show “0”, and others are blank?

If a product’s nutrition label shows “0” as the indicated value, the corresponding field in

ECCnet Item Certification shows “0” as the value. If nutrition labels do not show any value at

all, these fields are left blank. When a mandatory field in the application does not have a value,

a “0” is entered.

For example, if the nutrition label shows “0 g” of sugar, the sugar field will have a “0” in it. If

sugar is not shown on the label at all, then the sugar field is left blank (unless it is a mandatory

field, in which case the value in the field will be “0”).

http://www.gs1.org/1/productssolutions/gdsn/gpc/browser/index.html



37. Why are only certain allergens listed?

The attributes for allergens, ingredients and nutrition product data captured in ECCnet Item

Certification are based on current Health Canada requirements for package labeling, and were

specified based on agreement of the GS1 Canada Item Level Nutrition Workgroup. In most

cases, allergen information will not be included in ECCnet Item Certification unless you have

populated allergen fields in ECCnet ProSYNC. It is the brand owner’s responsibility to

populate and verify respective product allergen and claims information.

38. Government agencies sometimes request changes to our product

labels. How will this service help me with these requests?

Industry workgroups facilitated by GS1 Canada monitor Health Canada requirements. Should

future attribute changes be suggested by these groups – due to requirements stipulated by

governments or otherwise – they will be subject to a vote from the GS1 Canada Item Level

Nutrition Workgroup. Should changes be approved, GS1 Canada will provide you appropriate

lead time to accommodate any activities that will be required (such as new product images

and product re-certification).

39. Why are certain fields view-only and uneditable?

If you cannot edit a field, it is because of one of the following reasons:

You are an Approver. (Approvers do not have editing permission.)

The field cannot be modified because it is a unique identifier of the product (for example,

a GTIN or GLN). If you find discrepancies in uneditable data, please reject the product so

that ECCnet I&V services can investigate. Include rejection comments that clearly outline

the problem.

40. How do I tell which fields are editable?

When you move your cursor over a field, it will change from an arrow to a vertical bar,

indicating you can edit the field.

41. I do not want to certify the product because I notice an error. What

are my next steps?

If you are an Approver, do not certify the product. Instead, reject the product so the Reviewer

can take the appropriate action.

Reviewers can choose from the following options:

If the data does not match what is shown on the images of the labels, go back and edit

the fields so they match the labels.

If the product images you see do not reflect those of your current product labeling, or if

you are going to update your product packaging in the near future, reject the product.

Include rejection comments that detail which labels are incorrect. You will need to

resubmit the product to ECCnet I&V to capture new images. When you submit your


product to ECCnet I&V services, select the “Nutrition Service” option on the submission

form to ensure nutrition data is captured.

If there is incorrect data in non-editable fields, reject the product. Include rejection

comments that clearly outline the problem.

If the product is discontinued, reject the product and mention it is discontinued in the

rejection comments.

42. I found an error in the nutrition data after I certified the product.

How can I fix such errors?

The purpose of the “Certification” step in the process is to ensure that the product information

is accurate and no longer requires changes. As such, once the product has been certified, the

final stamp of approval has been provided by the brand owner and the information is

distributed to trading partners. As a result, further changes are not allowed.

If you need to correct an error, please contact GS1 Canada with the requested change and

product GTIN at [email protected] .

If there are changes required to label images, you need to re-submit the product to ECCnet

I&V for re-certification. Select the “Nutrition Service” option. A nutrition image fee will apply.

43. If my product is rebranded but its nutrition data hasn’t changed,

does the label content need to get captured again?

No. When you resubmit your product to ECCnet I&V services, nutrition and ingredient content

is not captured unless you select the “Nutrition Service” option on the submission form.

44. How do I load new products to ECCnet Item Certification?

For products that are not currently loaded in the ECCnet Item Certification service, submit

these products to ECCnet I&V services to be captured.

Select the “Nutrition Service” option on the ECCnet I&V submission form to ensure nutrition

and ingredient label images and data are captured and loaded into ECCnet Item Certification.

If your organization selected the ECCnet Registry loading option, you must also load the

product’s nutrition information into ECCnet Registry. This information will be loaded into

ECCnet Item Certification, as well as the label images from ECCnet I&V.

45. What is the difference between a Multiple-Version product and an

Archived product?

You can load multiple versions of a product (GTIN) and distinguish each version by optionally

providing a unique “Brand Owner Version Code”. In each case, the GTIN remains the same.

When a discontinued product is no longer in the supply chain, you have the option to archive

that product. Product details from an archived product are not sent to your trading partners.

mailto:[email protected]

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