The Maharashtra government today made it mandatory to have a 'track and trace' mechanism, and hologram on liquor bottles to ensure the stuff inside is genuine.

In order to know if the liquor bottle is genuine or fake, all one will need is a barcode scan from mobile phone. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet here, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. To root out the menace of spurious liquor, the state Excise department proposed to make it mandatory for all liquor bottles to carry a hologram and barcode with embedded covert and overt features.

 This will enable a "track and trace mechanism", which will follow the journey of the beverage from the manufacturer to the final point of sale and also reveal its authenticity to consumers and officials, an official said. Retailers will have to stock special lenses so that consumers can read the covert security features on the hologram, invisible to the naked eye, and thus verify the brew's authenticity.