The second stage of the EC Beef Labelling Regulations came into force on 1 January 2002, requiring meat retailers to show the country or countries where the animals were born and raised for all packs of beef. This is in addition to the existing requirements to show batch number, slaughter house and cutting centre details introduced in September 2000.

At Euroshop 2002, Avery Berkel will be showing a range of simple, integrated bovine traceability solutions for every stage of the beef supply chain, enabling butchers to meet all requirements quickly and easily. The systems incorporate an EAN 128 standard bar code scanning facility so operators simply have to scan the supplier’s label and the full batch details can be printed out automatically onto the pack label or customer receipt.