Tesco is the first UK supermarket to ditch traditional barcodes for ‘new technology’

Tesco is testing out new QR codes on food, instead of traditional barcodes (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

For the last 50 years, whenever you’ve bought something in a store, a barcode has likely been scanned at the checkout – whether it was at a supermarket or clothing store.

However, this is set to change in the next few years, as retailers are starting to ditch ‘old-fashioned’ barcodes with lines and replace them with modern square, pixel-based QR codes, also known as ‘2D barcodes’.

This is according to GS1, the world...