Bearing fruit - Telegraph Barcodes do not compete with Bach cantatas, say, in elevating the human spirit. These badly drawn railings that make supermarket check-outs go bleep actually reduce the human element in the daily experience of shopping. Before the end of the month, barcodes will start appearing on bananas and oranges. The EU has said it is all right, so it must be. Lasers will imprint the barcodes in iron oxide - rust as we generally know it. Up to now, consumer patience has only been tested by the question of whether sticky labels (applied so that check-out staff can tell a Cox from a kiwi fruit) should be removed before putting apples in the fruit bowl. In future, trout will be farmed with barcodes genetically implanted on their scales, and chickens will leave a barcode on each egg as they lay it. Meanwhile, machines will nag us poor shoppers for leaving unexplained objects in the bagging area.