The Barcode of Life’s DNA barcoding was approved by the FDA and will be used to prevent the mislabeling of fish and other seafood to ensure quality.

Earlier this fall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially approved “DNA barcoding” to prevent the mislabeling of seafood, both locally produced and imported. Essentially, the “DNA barcoding” will act as a standardized fingerprint that can identify a species, just as a standard supermarket barcode scanner would read a barcode.

This solution arrived from the Barcode of Life’s DNA Barcode Library and aims to solve the issue of mislabeling in the seafood industry. This widespread issue has cheaper types of fish being sold as a more expensive counterpart, which can pose serious health risks to humans.

The Barcode of Life has over 167,000 species in their database, so by using a short sequence of DNA, a species can be identified within their ever-growing database. By 2015, the group hopes to create a database of 5 million standardized DNA sequences, which could be used to identify 500,000 species.

Seafood lovers and restauranteurs can look forward to these “dna barcodes,” seeing them as a symbol of quality to look for when purchasing seafood. Would you be more likely to order fish at a restaurant if it was guaranteed to be fresh and as advertised? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter page.

Charles Walton, hailed as the “Father of RFID”, died at age 89.

In 1973, Charles Walton received his patent for a passive RFID transponder that could unlock a door without a key. He had a card with an embedded transponder that communicated a signal to an RFID reader near the door. When the reader detected a valid id number, the door unlocked.

Walton got his start by studying electrical engineering in college, going on to work with technology for the military, and then spending a decade at IBM. He eventually started his own company, Proximity Devices, receiving over 50 patents and making millions from his creations. Unfortunately, many of his patents expired in the mid-1990s, just as many government agencies were adopting RFID.

Perhaps he was just a tad before his time, but Walton’s vision, and work, will always live on and play a large role in the history of RFID. A memorial service will be held in his honor at 3:00 p.m. on Dec. 18, in Los Gatos, Calif. at the Unitarian Fellowship.

The food you buy in a grocery store has a long journey throughout the supply chain before it gets to your fridge. As the public becomes increasingly more aware of food safety, food traceability experts are doing everything possible to make sure food stays fresh and safe.

Tempix, a Swedish company that specializes in food safety awareness, can now guarantee that your food has been handled properly throughout the supply chain. Essentially, Tempix uses heat-sensitive barcodes that fade when exposed to too high of heat, rendering the product unscannable at checkout.

While there are similar solutions on the market, nothing has caught on at the international, or even national level. Currently, Tempix is in Sweden, but plans to ultimately expand to the rest of Europe.

Will fading barcodes become the norm for food safety? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Learn more about barcode technology in the food industry.

Starting as early as 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, as many as 15,000 Mall of America patrons began lining up for Black Friday at midnight, making it the largest opening of any Black Friday in the Mall’s history. But what made this year different than years past? QR codes.

So many people were lined up because 100 QR codes were embedded in a 50’ by 30’ MOA™ logo. Codes directed mall-goers to a web page that revealed whether or not they won a prize. 300 people won cash and prizes totaling $30,000 in value. In addition, there was a QR code campaign throughout the mall that offered shoppers a chance to win a $1,000 shopping spree. The winner will be drawn and notified on Christmas Eve.

By 10 a.m, the Mall of American had already seen 81,000 shoppers, so it’s no doubt they will break their record of 200,000 visitors on Black Friday 2010, meaning one very powerful QR code campaign.

Did you scan a QR code while shopping on Black Friday? If so, what was the promotion? Share your QR code Black Friday experience with us by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time of year to share our gratitude with family and friends. From the Barcoding Inc. family to yours, we wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Check out our QR code turkey, QRkey (pronounced Quirky):