Currently, the concern with safe food and its quality has been achieving great growth worldwide. For those attributes to be secured, electronic identification is the first step to ensure animal products traceability. This research aimed to study invasive and non-invasive electronic identification methods, and the benefits and drawbacks of these mechanisms in meat productive chain, since 1983 to date. By means of this bibliographic survey, it was observed there are several tools available that may be useful to farmers to attain the electronic identification, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method should be considered to choose the best one for each situation. Invasive methods have been subject of many studies, which reflects the broad commercial use of these identifiers, however, issues related to animal welfare and specific disadvantages may restrict their use. Non-invasive methods are more aligned to the practices of animal welfare, but they are more expensive, less practical, and less studied than others.