Retailer Aeon Co. has installed a computer system at a supermarket in Kanagawa Prefecture that tells consumers about the beef it sells, including data on mad cow disease tests, the company said.
The supermarket chain, formerly known as Jusco Co., is the only one providing written information on the origins of the beef it offers, the breed of cow and the results of the government's tests. But the new system at the outlet in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, includes the type of livestock feed the animal was fed and other details. The data is obtained through an agreement with the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations.
Consumers retrieve the information by inputting beef identification numbers on the touch-sensitive panel of the system, which also supplies recipes, according to the firm.
Aeon said it plans to install the system at about 30 of its outlets by July and at all of its supermarkets within about three years.
Although the system introduced Thursday only includes information on beef from Kagoshima Prefecture sold over the meat counter, the system will eventually cover more products, including packaged beef, it said.
Aeon initially saw its beef sales plunge by 70 percent in the wake of the nation's mad cow disease outbreak in the autumn. A series of campaigns it has run since December has given these sales a boost, however.
Beef sales recovered to just a 20 percent decline on the previous year's levels after Aeon held its third campaign between Jan. 25 and Feb. 3, the company said.
