I wrote about Food Traceability earlier in this german post. But the link and the excerpts below adds some additional information:

Food Safety and Traceability: Knowing what is on your Plate!

The Japanese government had to act to reassure Japanese consumers after BSE infected cattle was detected in Japan in 2001. The government set up the Food Safety Commission in April 2003 under direct supervision of the Prime Minister's cabinet. This Commission, together with the Ministries, is responsible for safeguarding Japan's food supply through a new system based on the principles of risk analysis, "Traceability".



This enables consumers to track the origin of the ingredients of and production all the way from the harvest (farm), manufacturer to the retailer of food and beverage products. The goal is to make food traceability for about 70 kinds of fresh and processed food by 2007 using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags or QR Codes attached to food packages to deliver information such as farmers names, dates of production, names of pesticides used, etc. to in store consumers.

If you want to sell your food products in Japan, you better start using QR Codes;)

• Print the QR Code on your product labels to provide more information in Japanese about your product. You can redirect consumers to your website, and give them more information about where and how your products were produced, recipes, food safety information, etc.
• Print the QR Code on your brochures, posters and even name card to direct consumers on where they can buy your products
• Print the QR Code on your advertisements.