Effect of different chemical compounds concentration in aqueous solution on UHF RFID readability

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology could deserve an important role in food products automatic identification. The massive introduction of RFID tracking in food factories has been limited as technical challenges have to be overcome. Tag reading performances are affected by many factors, as product composition, packaging materials and some peculiarities of the production environment, which dramatically reduce RF identification reliability. This paper analyses the effect on RFID tag readability when in proximity of aqueous solutions of different chemical compounds chosen among molecules which are frequently contained in food or beverage (citric acid, sodium chloride, sucrose). The effect of the concentration was evaluated measuring, in standardized conditions, the minimum power (Pmin) to be delivered to different commercial UHF passive tags for their activation and effective identification by a RFID UHF (Ultra High Frequency) test bench system.