Digitalised supply-chain traceability systems can offer wide prospects both for improving safety as well as enhancing perceived quality. However, the coupling between physical goods and information is often difficult for agri-food items. A solution could be the use of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) systems. Due to its wide reading range, Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) technology is already widely used in logistics and warehousing, mostly for the identification of batches of items. A growing interest is also emerging in Near Field Communication (NFC), as several smartphones embed an integrated NFC antenna. This paper deals with the automatic identification of meat products at item level, proposing and evaluating the adoption of different RFID technologies. Different UHF and NFC solutions are proposed, which benchmark tag performances in different configurations, including four meat types (fatty beef, lean beef, chicken and pork), by using a specifically designed test bench. As avoiding the application of two different tags could be advantageous, dual frequency devices (UHF and NFC) are also considered. Significant differences in tag performances, which also depend on meat type and packaging, are highlighted. The paper highlights that tag positioning should consider the geometry of the packaging and the relative positioning of tag, meat and reader antenna.

Radio Frequency IDentification for meat supply-chain digitalisation

Paolo Barge
First
;
Alessandro Biglia;Lorenzo Comba;Davide Ricauda Aimonino;Cristina Tortia
;
Paolo Gay
Last
2020-01-01

Abstract

Digitalised supply-chain traceability systems can offer wide prospects both for improving safety as well as enhancing perceived quality. However, the coupling between physical goods and information is often difficult for agri-food items. A solution could be the use of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) systems. Due to its wide reading range, Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) technology is already widely used in logistics and warehousing, mostly for the identification of batches of items. A growing interest is also emerging in Near Field Communication (NFC), as several smartphones embed an integrated NFC antenna. This paper deals with the automatic identification of meat products at item level, proposing and evaluating the adoption of different RFID technologies. Different UHF and NFC solutions are proposed, which benchmark tag performances in different configurations, including four meat types (fatty beef, lean beef, chicken and pork), by using a specifically designed test bench. As avoiding the application of two different tags could be advantageous, dual frequency devices (UHF and NFC) are also considered. Significant differences in tag performances, which also depend on meat type and packaging, are highlighted. The paper highlights that tag positioning should consider the geometry of the packaging and the relative positioning of tag, meat and reader antenna.
2020
20
4957
4973
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/17/4957
UHF and HF RFID, NFC, food industry, meat traceability, blockchain, supply-chain
Paolo Barge, Alessandro Biglia, Lorenzo Comba, Davide Ricauda Aimonino, Cristina Tortia, Paolo Gay
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
sensors-20-04957.pdf

Accesso aperto

Descrizione: pdf editoriale
Tipo di file: PDF EDITORIALE
Dimensione 5.14 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
5.14 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1755175
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 5
  • Scopus 30
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 18
social impact