The Case for UHF RFID application in the meat supply chain in the Irish context: a review perspective

As a result of recent food scares increasing pressure has been placed on food producing industries to incorporate a farm-to-fork traceability system. Conventional methods of traceability while reasonably successful are not without their disadvantages. These include potential damage and limited data capacity in the case of bar codes, unacceptable delays incurred through the use of DNA sampling and finally inapplicability of on biometric technologies due to permanent detachment post mortem. The aims of this paper is to outline the legislative requirements for traceability, technological aspects of current traceability systems, and the case for the widespread adoption of RFID in the farm-to-fork traceability of meat, all based on the Irish system. The arguments would be valid to any country or geographic region, with the existing differences taken into account. RFID technologies offer, among others, solutions to most important challenges to barcode technology, amenity to automation, possibility of value-added products, possibility for condition monitoring during storage and transport, potential to in house traceability under adverse processing environments, seamless integration with global supply chain, item-level traceability, and all these in near real-time

Permittivity of Meat Fish and their Components at UHF RFID Frequencies and Industry Relevant Temperatures

Permittivity values of lean beef, pork, fish, poultry, and values for other components from these sources (i.e. fat, marrow and bone) were measured at selected                                                                                                                                                                                                                              industry-relevant temperatures – 18 oC, - 12  oC, - 5 oC, 0 oC, 7 oC, 25 oC, 40 oC and UHF RFID relevant frequencies of 868 MHz, 915 MHZ, 950 MHz and 2450 MHz. Muscle fibre orientation in relation to probe placement was also investigated. Increases in temperature generally led to increases in the dielectric constant (e’) and loss factor (e’’) of all test samples while the opposite trend was observed with increases in frequency (i.e. e’ and e’’ decreased). These trends were clearly evident for samples of lean beef, pork, poultry and fish. The dielectric properties of other non-lean components also varied with temperature and frequency. e’ and e’’ values of fat and marrow were significantly lower than those of lean while for fibrous tissues muscle fibre orientation only had a significant influence in the case of poultry (p≤0.05) and not in the case of beef or pork (p≥0.05). Results of this study can serve as basic data for the design and/or application of RFID inlays