National Item File for Supply Chain Product Identification

The National Item File (NIF) provides unique identifiers for products used in supply chains, utilizing Universal Product Numbers encoded as bar codes. It is published by the Department of Veterans Affairs and was last updated in August 2025.

Use Cases

• Map product characteristics to Universal Product Numbers for supply chain tracking.
• Integrate bar code data from the NIF into inventory management systems.
• Analyze the association between product identifiers and VA-specific supply chain tags.

Strengths

• Published under a CC0 license, allowing for unrestricted public use.
• Maintained by the authoritative Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Includes tags for VA, Veteran, and supply chain contexts.

Limitations

• The total number of records, columns, and file size are unknown.
• Lacks sample data or a defined schema, hindering immediate usability.
• No information on update frequency or historical temporal coverage.

Provenance

Source

Department of Veterans Affairs

Freshness

Last updated on 2025-08-02.