ABSTRACT
The beginning of tracing products by barcoding and scanner-technologies in the middle of the 1970s, enabled the control of the efficiency of mass-distribution via self-service. Animal tracing at first only was seen to be necessary as an anti-crisis tool during the food-scandal of Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in the middle of the 1990s. The tracing-system should enable authorities and the total supply chain to quickly distinguish between products with defects and those that could continue on the way to the fork. Twenty years later those innovators of agriculture who want to sell animals and meat as brands use tracing as a pro-active marketing instrument. Due also to technological developments, like chip-technologies or the QR-Code, more data can be stored directly to the item and communication can be enlarged even including the end-consumers.
