Next-generation 2D barcodes could transform food safety and speed recalls, but industry adoption remains years away
The retail and packaged goods industries are preparing to roll out two-dimensional QR-code-like barcodes alongside traditional one-dimensional UPC labels beginning in 2027, under an initiative called "Sunrise 2027" led by GS1, the standards-setting body that oversees global barcode licensing. Unlike today's 1D barcodes, which identify only a product type, 2D barcodes can encode up to 3,000 digits and characters — including bin and lot numbers that would allow recalled items to be traced, flagged at checkout, or identified by consumers at home.
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The first barcode was scanned at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974 — a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum — and the checkout process has remained largely unchanged in the 52 years since. The retail and packaged goods industries, which helped found GS1 in 1973, are now preparing for what the organization describes as the most significant barcode upgrade since that first scan.
At the center of the proposal is a practical food safety problem. Under the current system, bin and lot numbers — the identifiers that let investigators and stores trace a product to a specific batch — are printed separately on packaging in strings of letters and numbers that require a human to read and interpret. With tens of thousands of unique items on the shelves of a typical big-box store, that process is error-prone. CNN's reporting noted that two people died in a summer 2026 cyclosporiasis outbreak, and that safe food is routinely discarded during broad recalls at a cost of hundreds of millions — and in some cases billions — of dollars per year to major retailers.
Two-dimensional barcodes could embed bin and lot data directly into the scannable code, enabling automated systems to flag or lock out recalled items at checkout, alert stores to pull products from shelves, and allow consumers to scan a code at home to verify whether a purchased item is under recall. Early adopters including Topo Chico and Procter & Gamble have already begun placing 2D codes on products alongside existing 1D labels.