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Comment by estearum | Hacker News Reader

Are food labels required to identify where they're sourced from? I don't think so?

The new QR codes (to replace the 2D UPCs) that manufacturers and merchants are moving to will contain source information and even which lot it came from.

USDA inspected foods already carry markers with lot codes and factory identifiers. That is how food traceability works right now. Those values are pretty opaque to consumers though. The new 2D barcode rules seem to suggest that there will be a human readable value for the "Plant" that worked a food item, but I'm having difficulty cross referencing how this actually plays out. My reading is that the human readable value is only necessary for the next step in the chain, so a packaging company can partially obscure the human readable location value for the harvester, for example, though they will have a Plant code identifier of some sort.

If companies have a way of obscuring this info to end consumers while still meeting FDA obligations, they absolutely will, as they currently do for things like the information for companies who "Make" products right now, which are often holding companies meant to obscure business relationships.

Oh, and any human readable value will be obscured behind a QR code anyway, so all the humans who already do zero investigation to understand where their stuff comes from will continue to have no extra information.

Strict labeling laws around protected terms is an essential thing because so many people read nothing more than the packaging itself when shopping. All chicken lists "No hormones" as an advertisement despite that being law and no chicken sold will ever have those hormones.

But will it by ciphered by the manufacturer?

Tons of products already have all manner of information printed on them, but only the manufacturer can readily decrypt it.

This is a really good video explaining it. There is a good opportunity for someone more enterprising than I to stand up some infrastructure to support it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R32j6ZA3byI

That's bad ass

I don't know what is legally required, but many in the industry want that. The better we can identify where something comes from the better we can contain issues if we find them later.

It’s not but they should list country of origin for the ingredients

In the US I also want to know State of Origin. Not all state food and agricultural department regulations and inspections are the same.

That sounds like a bad idea if produce can be freely sold across state lines even when it doesn't meet the standards required in a particular state. It's the right conditions to promote a race to the bottom with the states that have the most lax regulations would be more attractive to food companies with the worst standards (production that meets high standards wouldn't benefit from the extra quality unless they can market that specifically).

Aren't you describing the current state of affairs, and GP's suggestion would enable the ideal state (i.e. food products can compete on implied quality based on state of origin)?

You're right, I thought I was replying to a different comment somehow.

"Should" or "are required to?"

Regulations are minimal compared to what most consumers would want and expect.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/cool

Is that true though? Trump was very clear about what he would do, and was voted in.

And here we are.

For some things like meat, eggs, and milk: The USDA-inspected processing facility is required to be listed on the package. It is usually not very far-removed from the farm. It's coded, and these days it's usually printed near the sell-by date.

They (the USDA) publish cross-references betwixt the codes and the processing plants.

It's been kind of a pain in the ass when I've looked this stuff up in the past and I wish someone would take it upon themselves to make it easier, but it's do-able.

Depends on the thing. Olive oil, for example, is required to list its country/countries of origin

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