The Beef Traceability System (BTS) is a "Consumer Assurance Program" which minimizes consumers damage through tracing distribution channel of beef.In case of some problems on the hygiene or safety, the defective products can be traced, recalled or abandoned as soon as possible.It also can be applied to improve the efficiency of beef distribution and stock management.In Korea the pilot BTS was implemented by voluntary system from Oct.2004 to Dec.2008.After that BTS between farms to slaughterhouses was enforced on Dec.2008 by mandatory system.This system was extended to the retail shops from June 2009.But it has not covered restaurants yet.Korean government has tried to apply the pilot BTS based on RFID in several areas.But it seems to take more time to adopt the RFID system because of high cost.Also traceability system for the imported beef from importers to consumers started from Dec.2010.BTS was based on "The Cattle and Beef Traceability Management Act" which was enacted on Dec.2007.The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) is responsible for formulating the BTS policies.The Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation (KAPE) is entrusted by the MIFAFF to implement the practical promotion.National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) and entrusted local agencies together take charge of attaching ear-tag.BTS is implemented by four steps, such as, breeding step, slaughterhouse step, processing step,and selling step.At the breeding step, farmers should report the birth of calves to the entrusted local agencies within 5 days.Then the entrusted local agencies should attach ear tags and register the basic information to the traceability system within a month.The basic information contains farmers name,telephone number, address of farm, animal identification number (ID No), birth date, breed type, sex,etc.When the registered herd moves or dies, it should be reported.At the slaughterhouse step, each herd is identified byear tag and is given slaughter number.Slaughterhouse should report animal ID No, slaughter number, slaughter date, breed type, sex, grade,and weight.KAPE agent should save samples from all carcasses and send them to KAPE with information above.These samples will be used for DNA identity inspection.The slaughterhouse provides label to the carcass.At the processing step, carcass is cut into each part of meat, and turned into dressed meat.In this procedure carcass of another ID No is not delivered in the packing room.The meat is then packed and labeled with ID No, date of processing, and weight, etc.The lot unit of BTS is basically one head.But in case of boxed beef which is composed of different ID No, lot unit can be extended to 20 heads.In this time the representative lot number can be used.Processors should keep the record of representative lot number with ID No.At the selling step, retailers should display the ID No at meat shelves.They also should keep the record about buying and selling beef for one year.BTS is now improving to a convenient and seamless system from farm to consumer using touch-screen system of internet and mobile phone to trace the information including country of origin.