Tesco started trialling QR codes last year, with customers given recipes and storage instructions when they scan products
Supermarket barcodes could soon be replaced entirely by QR codes – with one major retailer already leading the way with this huge change.
Barcodes have been around for 50 years – they are basically made up of black parallel lines or patterns that store information. But they can only hold seven pieces of information — the product name, manufacturer, type, size, weight, colour and its price.
QR codes are made up of black squares arranged on a white grid and can store much more information, including product origin, recipe inspiration and allergen information.
They also have the added convenience of being able to be scanned by smartphones from any angle.
Over the next few years, QR codes could be set to become the norm in stores, according to GS1, an international non-profit that maintains the global standard for barcodes.
Tesco started trialling QR codes last year, with customers given recipes and storage instructions when they scan products. The QR codes feature across some of its own-brand fresh produce and meat products, including lemons, limes, steaks and sausages.
Anne Godfrey, chief executive of GS1 UK, claims almost half of British retailers have already updated their checkouts to prepare for QR codes.
The Telegraph reports that other major brands that have introduced QR codes include Unilever, Procter & Gamble and L’Oréal.
Speaking to Mail Online, Anne said: “Very soon we will say goodbye to the old-fashioned barcode and every product will just have one QR code that holds all the information you need.
“The old barcodes do what they say on the tin — they go beep, tell you the price and get you out of the store. But today’s consumers want much more information about the products they buy.”
Other brands that have started introducing 2D barcodes include L’Oreal, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble.
Barcodes were invented in the 1940s by US science graduates Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in the late 1940s – but the first time one of them was scanned in store was in 1974 and this was a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum at a supermarket in Ohio.
They did not arrive in the UK until 1979, when they first used on a box of teabags at a shop in Spalding, Lincolnshire.
“I think it will end up being as significant as the original introduction of the barcode,” Lee Metters, business development director at Domino Printing Sciences told the Telegraph.
