The method integrates a newly developed transport crate called "info-Box" or iBoS, which is equipped with a transponder and RFID technology. The project team also created anInternet-accessible supply chain management system to manage and control the flow of information from the Info-Box crate.
Until the introduction of the new standardised transponder no reliable RFID technology at a suited wavelength was available to be used in combination with liquid and food products like meataccording to a report on the project by Information Society Technologies (IST), a technology development programme funded by the EU. The system will also helpensure the meat arrives at the retailer in a safe condition, IST said.
RFID technology, which uses miniature antennas and tiny computer chips to track items at a distance using radio waves, is increasing coming to the fore as the best means of tracking goodsthroughout the supply chain. Many suppliers have been obliged to install RFID technology because of regulatory pressure and retail requirements from big retailers such as Wal-Mart.
"Transparency improves food safety by more reliable and secure logistical processes, easy tracking and tracing, and also considerably improves logistics efficiency," said Wilco vande Vosse, project coordinator, and services and product manager at ACR Logistics, one of the partners in the project.
The special packing crate was produced by project partner Bekuplast, a German company. The iBoS project team developed the transponder, orbeacon, and the RFID tags that could be moulded into the box during its manufacture.
The iBoS RFID transponder can be read in difficult conditions, independent of orientation, light, temperature, humidity, IST said. Up to 250 transponders can be read simultaneously and can be usedin combination with bar codes, all integrated into one label.
It is also a read and write chip, so those linked in the supply chain can add data. For example the slaughterhouse will be able to add data to the transponder about the type of product, likearticle, weight and price.
"In trials the supply chain management system offered better quality control," the project team claims. "Information could be read with simple readers, without the need toconnect to the back office. Since there is no manual scanning of bar codes, no weighing of each individual crate and no counting is required, there are no errors, and the process is faster and moreefficient."
Currently RFID technology has a five per cent market share in the packing identification market due mainly to the relative high cost of the technoloyg. RFID tags currently cost about €1 a tagwhile bar code labels cost less than one cent.
"However, iBoS adds considerable value to the tracking process and should promote the rapid adoption of RFID technology," the project team claims. "Meat product logistics isexpensive, very critical, has a large scale of economy and can have direct impact on human health."
The system could eventually be used to enable an "automatic checkout", where a computer reads the contents of a shopping basket and simply presents customers with a bill, savingconsiderable time, they say.
This system was tested last year at a number of meat retailers and slaugherhouses in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.