ELECTRONIC TRACKING AND TRACING IN FOOD AND FEED TRACEABILITY

Abstract: Automatic identification and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are two most applicable electronic tools for food and feed traceability. This work has presented the main features of printed graphic identifiers, radio frequency identifiers, and electronic data interchange protocols that have potential for the traceability of food and feed. Two-dimensional printed graphic identifiers offer cheaper electronic identification alternative to radio-frequency identifiers (RFID), and may be the best alternatives until such time that existing difficulties with RFID application to food substances, originating from attenuation, are addressed fully and properly. Preliminary results from an experiment aimed at the evaluation of UHF RFID application to the identification of modified atmosphere packaged meat show that to attain a probability of detection of approximately 0.67 (two-third) with a system that employs three antennae requires an effective radiated power of not less than 700 mW and distances of at most 0.2 m. Linearly polarized antennae performed better than circularly polarized, especially at longer distances. Presence of bone in the meat samples is observed to have positively affected readability, although further experimentation is necessary to verify this phenomenon. The lack of a single road-map to electronic data interchange (EDI) leaves the choice open to a few alternatives that may fall into two broad classes, namely internet based EDI enabled and traditional EDI based. Cost considerations make the former is an attractive choice and there are still developments in the area, perhaps with the new protocol, ebXML, leading the way