Abstract: A method for facilitating the inspection of liquid merchandise is provided. A machine readable tag is generated and is associated with liquid merchandise purchased at a duty free point of sale or other secure sales or distribution location, the machine readable tag conveying identification information related to the liquid merchandise. At a security check-point, the identification information is extracted from the machine readable tag and is used in conjunction with an X-ray image of the liquid merchandise to determine if the liquid merchandise is consistent with the identification information. A system and an apparatus for implementing the method presented are also provided.