[pitaa]

If retailers actually started using the EPC standard this would be easy. EPC is the RFID equivalent of a UPC barcode, and it has the capability to also transmit a unique serial number for each product. If this were actually used, it would be simple to deploy an interface for a customer to verify when/where the product was manufactured through when/where it was sold. Unfortunately it seems the adoption of EPC has stalled in the last few years (AFAIK, I'm no longer as involved in the retail supply chain), which is interesting because I had high hopes for it. I remember buying a package of socks 5+ years ago that already had an RFID tag embedded in the packaging.