Information printed below or beside a barcode is referred to as Human Readable Interpretation (HRI). (The
U.S. FDA UDI Rule was silent with regard to this information.) In general, the GS1 System requires
printing HRI for all of the information encoded within the barcode. However, this may not always be
possible due to many factors such as the type of item being marked, intended use of the item, available
space, etc. If it is not possible to print all of the HRI, Figure 4.12.1 – 1 in the GS1 General Specifications
provides guidance to help you determine the most appropriate course of action. GS1 US believes that the
best practice is to encode the required AIs first along with the required HRI.
