Help with 856 ASN Spec

Hi everyone, I’m with a company that’s receiving large shipments (consisting of several pallets) of food products (dry and perishable) into distribution centers and store locations. We have the intent of integrating EDI documents with thousands of vendors with the goal of improved receiving process through scanning and reduction in manual data entry. I’m wondering how common it is in the food/perishable goods environment to have a single EDI 856 format that is used as a master specification for all vendors? I interviewed several vendors who will pilot the process with us, asked them questions about supported formats, how they handled expiration date coding, lot number, etc and they all basically said “yeah we can do whatever you want just give us a spec”. It seems like a SO(T)PI structure gives us the most flexibility and options to expand (thinking FSMA 204 regulations that are coming). I’m also thinking about supporting expiration dates and lot numbers at both pack and item level (potentially conditional logic). I’m looking for anyone who has thoughts or guidance on this, or can point me to where I’m wrong or what I’m missing. Appreciate the help EDI fam!