Development of the traceability system which secures the safety of fishery products using the QR code and a digital signature

Technologies that enable traceability for fishery products are increasing their demands. Recently proposed technologies are mainly based on disposal RF(IC) tags which are able to record information directly onto them. However, the current systems based on RF tags have problems of expensive price of tags, and weakness of reading information if applied onto surface of products containing much water, which prevents to construct practically feasible systems using the RF tags. To provide a traceability system that uses much inexpensive media and that assures as high security as the RF tags, we propose a system based on a combination of printed 2D codes and internet connection, with security control similar to on-line electronic transactions. The proposed system identifies a fishery product by giving it a unique serial ID, which is issued by a database server, and printed in 2D code onto a paper or a plastic plate, which is directly put on the product. All the trace information sent from client (producer, transporters, and retailer) via internet is associated to the ID and stored to the server. Since 2D code is able to be read by such as mobile phones with built-in camera, a consumer is able to get history of the product with a single scanning operation. For the weakness of printed codes against duplication by copying, we propose a method to identify its validity by digital encryption, along with identification by weight information. The system is assured its usability by a series of experiments conducted for the distribution of cultured flounder in Hakodate, Japan.