> I would be interested to know what procedures various countries have in
> place to track honey to its origin.

> Producer-packers in Canada are encouraged to put lot numbers on each
> barrel packed but I don't know anyone who does so.

Our company has a system for tracking a product from a retail batch code
back to the producer and from there to their individual apiary site.  It has
to start with the producer using a standardised batching system with record
keeping of apiary sites supplying each batch.

We developed such as system and have a copy of it on our website under -
Technical, -Research Literature, -Airborne's Standard Sampling System.  Also
a PDF version.

It makes a lot of sense to take samples at the point of filling the drums
than trying to dig them out of the drums at a later stage.  It also provides
a more representative sample as the honey does not have the same chance to
stratify as it does in the drum.

We use the representative sample created by this system as the basis of a
barcode to then identify and track every drum.

Marking each retail unit with a unique (to each batch) code is not cheap.
Overprinters for labels are one way of doing it without a lot of capital
outlay, but unit cost is higher than high production (300 per min) type
technologies.

Regards
Peter Bray
_________________________________________________________
Airborne Honey Ltd., Pennington St, PO Box 28, Leeston,
New Zealand Fax 64-3-324-3236,  Phone 64-3-324-3569
http://www.airborne.co.nz  [log in to unmask]