Use of Meat Messaging and Barcodes as Shipping marks to US
28 May 2025
Focus area: Market access
Program stream: Technical market access & markets
Project number: 2024-1010
This project aimed to reduce preventable refused entry of Australian red meat into the US, largely caused by errors in manually applied shipping marks used to verify supply chain provenance. As Australia’s largest export market for beef and goatmeat, and second-largest for sheepmeat, the U.S. has strict import requirements.
The project trialled a barcode-based system using the Meat Messaging platform to link cartons directly to Government Health Certificates, replacing manual shipping marks and improving compliance and traceability. Options were developed to be discussed with the U.S. Government in the future.