Product Traceability – powered by industrial labeling

In order to minimize risks in food safety, the EU’s General Food Law (Regulation no. 178/2002) entered into force in 2002. It applies to all operators involved in the value chain of the food industry – from production to processing and distribution: Farmers, importers, hauliers, manufacturers, fabricators, traders and retailers must fully document every step and be able to identify the origin and destination of every product. Batch numbers and barcodes help to rapidly provide information to authorities when needed.

EU Directives 2008/43/EC and 2012/4/EU require civil use explosives across Europe to be identifiable and traceable at every point in the supply chain. Depending on the size of the explosive, manufacturers or importers are required to mark each individual item with a unique identification code. This code is made up of several information about the manufacturer, product and logistics data. The marking must include a machine-readable barcode or data matrix code.

With the enforcement of EU Directive 2011/62/EU, prescription drug packaging must have certain safety features that prevent falsified medicinal products from entering the legal supply chain. The individual packaging must not only be tamper-evident, but must also be serialized. This requires manufacturers to apply a unique serial number that is linked to information about the origin, batch number and shelf life and is registered with national and European database repositories. The serialization code must be applied in the form of human-readable text as well as a machine-readable data matrix code. It allows pharmacists to scan and authenticate the product.