Tassie beef snags go high tech in Coles trial

By Ange Clark
Updated November 7 2012 - 1:34am, first published October 2 2011 - 10:10pm
<b>GOURMET:</b>
<b>GOURMET:</b>

DO YOU want to know exactly where your sausages come from? Well now you can, literally, with new technology recently launched by Greenham Tasmania. Greenham has linked up with a popular smart phone application called Scan, which reads a Quick Response (QR) code with a phone camera, then transfers the user to a Cape Grim web page. A major feature of the website is the ability to trace the product back to the Tasmanian farm of origin. When purchasing gourmet sausages, customers can now identify the owner of the property, its location and management practices, and even view photos of the farm. In a trial running in around 50 Coles supermarkets across Tasmania and Victoria, gourmet sausages made by the Tibaldi company in Melbourne, using beef from Greenham's Cape Grim grass-fed program in Tasmania, have been tagged with QR codes. Greenham Tasmania managing director Peter Greenham said the company wanted to find a way to get more information to its customers. "We've been using the system in Korea for some time and it has proved very popular," Mr Greenham said. "More and more Australians are now aware of the existence of QR codes, but many may not yet have actually used one. "We think that's going to change rapidly. The link also provides recipes, handling instructions and background on the Cape Grim brand. Meat and Livestock Australia domestic market manager Glen Feist said he had not seen another example of QR codes being used in fresh meat retailing in Australia. "QR codes have been widely used across North Asian retailing for some years," Mr Feist said. "It is now slowly sneaking into Australia in some grocery product marketing, but not yet in beef in any significant way - this is probably the first."

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