The METRC Package Tag Explained: What It Tells You About Your Cannabis

Every legal cannabis product in Massachusetts has a digital record. That record starts as a tag on a plant. By the time the product is sold, it follows a package tag with its own unique ID. Both live in METRC, the state's seed-to-sale tracking system.

Most shoppers never think about it. But the package tag is the link between the jar or cartridge you're holding and everything the state knows about it, including its lab results. Here's what the tag is, what it tells you, what it doesn't, and why we put it on our product pages. This guide is for adults 21 and over.

Key takeaways

• METRC is the Massachusetts system of record for tracking cannabis from seed to sale. Every licensee has to use it.
• Licensees must attach plant tags to plants and package tags to all finished cannabis products (935 CMR 500.105(8)(e)).
• Each package tag carries a unique ID that links the package to its source batch, its movements and its lab results.
• Consumers can't log in to METRC. You see its data through the product label and through retailers that publish it.
• Since June 2025, certificates of analysis have to be uploaded into METRC, so lab results and package records are connected.

What METRC is

The Cannabis Control Commission describes METRC as a web-based inventory system that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) and serialized plant and package tags to follow cannabis from seed to point of sale. The regulations call it the Seed-to-sale System of Record (SOR). Every licensed Marijuana Establishment and Medical Marijuana Treatment Center has to use it.

The regulations define what the tracking system has to capture: "everything that happens to an individual Marijuana plant," from seed and cultivation through harvest, manufacturing, transport and final sale. It relies on unique plant IDs and unique batch IDs. It also records which licensed agents handled the product.

In practice, METRC tracks:

• Plants, from clones and seedlings through vegetative and flowering growth.
• Harvests, including individual plant weights.
• Production batches, meaning flower, concentrates, edibles and other products made from those harvests.
• Lab testing, including samples sent to labs, results, and since June 2025 the certificate of analysis itself.
• Transfers between licensees, such as cultivator to manufacturer or manufacturer to retailer, including transport.
• Sales to consumers, reconciled against inventory.
• Waste and destruction.

A product that isn't in the system can't be legally transferred or sold. The regulations say that failing to enter inventory into the system can lead to license suspension or revocation.

What a METRC package tag is

When a batch becomes finished product ready to sell, the licensee attaches package tags. The rule is direct: licensees must "attach package tags to all Finished Marijuana and Marijuana Products" and track them in the state-approved system.

According to METRC's own tagging guide, a tag carries:

• The facility name and license number of the business the tags were issued to.
• An order number for the tag batch.
• A unique identifier (UID). This is the key field. It's the ID the system uses to find that exact package.
• A barcode that matches the UID, so it can be scanned without RFID.
• A color code: blue for adult-use cannabis, yellow for medical.

METRC's guide also notes that a package tag can be split. One part has the RFID antenna and barcode. A smaller part has the same barcode, which can go on a retail unit. How that split is handled is up to each state's rules.

Package tag vs. batch number

These are easy to confuse:

• A batch number identifies a production batch, meaning product made at the same time by the same process. It's required on Massachusetts labels.
• A package tag UID identifies one tracked package. In the system, it links back to its source batch. One batch can become many packages, each with its own tag.

Under current CCC rules, product labels must carry a batch number, a sequential serial number and a bar code when one is used (935 CMR 500.105(5)). The labeling rules don't specifically require the METRC package UID to be printed on the retail label, so whether you see it depends on how the producer and retailer label the product. Some show it and some don't.

What the tag tells you and what it doesn't

What you can learn

Through the package record and the certificate of analysis linked to it, a package tag connects to:

• The batch it came from, and through the batch, the cultivator or manufacturer.
• The lab results for that batch: cannabinoid profile, contaminant screens and testing date. See how to read a certificate of analysis.
• The fact that the product entered the legal market properly. A tagged, tracked package moved through licensed hands.

What you can't see

• METRC itself. It's a system for licensees and regulators. There's no public login and no consumer lookup.
• Chain-of-custody details such as which agent handled it, internal transfers or manifests. That's regulatory data.
• How it will feel. A tag is an inventory record. It says nothing about experience, and neither does the COA.

So as a shopper, you see METRC data indirectly: through the label (tested with no adverse findings, the testing date, the cannabinoid profile) and through any retailer that publishes the lab data tied to the package.

Why the tag matters to you

Traceability. If there's a problem with a batch, such as a failed retest or a recall, the tag is how the state and licensees find every package from it.

Test-before-sale. The regulations don't allow a product to be sold until an Independent Testing Laboratory has tested it and found that it complies. Test results have to be recorded, and potency has to be entered in the seed-to-sale system.

Freshness of the test. Massachusetts test results are valid for one year. After that, the product counts as expired until it's retested. The package record shows when the testing happened.

Real lab data, not marketing. A product's potency and contaminant results come from an independent lab and are tied to a specific package. You don't have to take a brand's word for it.

Why we show it

Most delivery menus give you a product name, a photo and a THC percentage, with no source. We think you should see the lab data behind the product before it's at your door.

When the data is available, each product page on our site shows the lab summary tied to that package's METRC tag: potency, contaminant screen results and the testing date. Our lab results page explains each field in plain language. It covers what "ND" means, how total THC is calculated, and what a pass on each screen means.

It works the same across the menu, whether you're looking at flower, vapes, edibles or concentrates, and in every area we serve, from Jamaica Plain to Newton to Quincy.

See it for yourself: browse the menu and open any product's lab summary. Adults 21+ only.

A quick glossary

• SOR (System of Record): the state-designated tracking system, which in Massachusetts is METRC.
• UID: the unique identifier on a plant or package tag.
• Production batch: product made at the same time from the same inputs by the same method.
• COA (Certificate of Analysis): the independent lab's report on a batch.
• ITL (Independent Testing Laboratory): a licensed lab that tests cannabis for the regulated market.

For the potency numbers you'll see on a lab summary, read THC percentage explained. If you're new to ordering, how cannabis delivery works in Massachusetts walks through the process.

For use only by adults 21 years of age or older. Keep out of the reach of children. This article is general information, not legal advice.