The Dioxin Scandal has shocked Germany. Chickens on German farms were eating poisoned feed. This past January when the scandal broke out, barcoo immediately built in a function to detect whether eggs had been poisoned by dioxin. So far so good.

That was a sensible and necessary protective action, but since we want to provide 100% transparency, we’ve teamed up with KAT (Association for Controlled Alternative Animal Husbandry Methods) and built in unbelievably detailed background information: not only can you find out specific information about the origin of the egg, the stocking density, the nests, the feed and the animal’s health, you can even see photos of the chickens that laid the eggs you’ve just looked up using barcoo! This is how it looks:

Photos of laying house and chicken stall

According to one statement, KAT is “the most important supervisory authority in hen keeping and believes in quality and traceability in egg production.” Personally, I’m excited for the next time I go to the supermarket and about that much more transparency. We also invite other producers for whom traceability isn’t a foreign concept to contact us.

The recent food contamination scandal in Germany, where an animal feed additive has been found to contain dioxin, was reason enough for us to move quickly and add another function to barcoo: Users can now enter the code printed on the eggs to check whether they are contaminated or not. To get the information we’re using a list of codes published by the consumer agency Hamburg.

This is another step in our mission to bring transparency to consumers to make it easier for them to shop healthy and sustainable products.