Application Analysis of RFID Technology in Food Industry
Radio frequency identification technology (Radio Frequency Identification RFID) is a non-contact automatic identification technology, which automatically identifies target objects and obtains relevant data through radio frequency signals without manual intervention. Compared with traditional automatic identification technologies such as bar codes, magnetic stripes, magnetic cards, and IC cards, RFID technology has the advantages of high automation, long recognition distance, large amount of stored information, and strong environmental adaptability. Moreover, RFID technology has achieved passive and Contact-free operation, convenient application, no mechanical wear, long life, can better guarantee the safety of the appliance, if you are interested in this product or want to learn more, please contact us (contact information at the bottom of the article).
1 RFID technology and principle
The RFID system must have two key capabilities, the first is automatic identification, data reading and writing capabilities; the second is the data processing capabilities that can meet data storage and data conversion. The general 3 RFID system consists of the following 3 basic components:
1.1 Electronic label
Generally composed of chips and coupling components, the main function is to complete the communication with the reader/writer. Compared with bar code, magnetic card, IC card and other early or early identification technologies, radio frequency identification cards have the advantages of non-contact, long working distance, suitable for harsh environment, and recognizable moving targets.
According to different energy supply methods, RFID tags can be divided into passive tags, semi-active tags, and active tags. The energy of the chips in the semi-active tags and active tags is provided by the battery attached to the electronic tag. The active tags can actively send out radio frequency signals. According to the different operating frequencies, RFID tags can be divided into microwave, ultra high frequency (UFH), high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) and other different types. The working principle of RFID in different frequency bands is different. The RFID of microwave and ultra-high frequency band generally adopts the principle of electromagnetic emission, and the RFID electronic tags of high frequency and low frequency band generally adopt the principle of electromagnetic coupling.
1.2 Reader
The reader is a device for reading tag information. The RFID reader is to control the radio frequency module to transmit a read signal to the tag, and receive the tag's response, decode the tag's object identification information, and transmit the object identification information along with other relevant information on the tag to the host for processing.
In most RFID systems, the reader emits electromagnetic waves in an area (the size of the area depends on the operating frequency and antenna size). There is an LC series resonance circuit in the card, the frequency is the same as the frequency emitted by the reader. When the radio frequency card passes through this area, under the excitation of electromagnetic waves, the LC resonant circuit resonates, so that there is a charge in the capacitor. At the other end of this capacitor, a unidirectional channel electronic pump is connected to send the charge in the capacitor to another capacitor for storage. When the accumulated charge reaches 2V, this capacitor can be used as a power supply to provide operating voltage for other circuits, to send out the data in the card or to access the data of the reader. After the reader receives the data from the card, it decodes and performs error checking to determine the validity of the data, and then transmits the data to the computer network via RS232, RS422, RS485 or wireless. A simple RFID product is a non-contact IC card, while a complex RFID product can be connected to an external sensor interface to measure and record different parameters, and can even be connected to a GP S system to track objects.
1.3 Data exchange and management system
The reader sends a certain frequency of radio frequency signals. When the radio frequency card enters the working area of the transmitting antenna, an induced current is generated. The radio frequency card obtains energy and is activated. The radio frequency card sends its own code and other information through the built-in card. The carrier signal sent by the card is transferred to the reader through the regulator. The reader demodulates and decodes the received signal, and then sends it to the background main system for related processing. The main system judges the legality of the card according to the logical operation , Make corresponding processing and control for different settings, issue command signals to control the action of the actuator.
Radio frequency identification technology uses the transmission characteristics of radio frequency signals and spatial coupling to realize automatic identification of the identified objects. The radio frequency identification system is composed of three parts: reader (reader, reader, reader), electronic tag (Tag) and data exchange and management system. The principle of radio frequency identification technology is: the reader generates an energy field within the readable range to stimulate the electronic tag. When the food with the electronic tag enters this distance range, the reader will control to emit a microwave query signal, and After receiving the signal from the reader, the electronic tag integrates the signal with the data information in the tag and reflects it back to the reader. The reflected microwave synthesized signal already carries the data information on the electronic tag. The reader receives the microwave reflected by the tag. After the signal is processed by the internal microprocessor of the reader, the information stored in the tag can be read out.
2 Application of radio frequency identification technology in food
As people's awareness of food safety has increased, government departments have paid more attention to food safety, and the news media's exposure to safety incidents has made food safety issues increasingly serious. Food is directly related to people's health. In addition to establishing a series of national and industry standards to regulate food production, processing and sales, high-tech methods are also required to manage food safety. Applying RFID technology to the food industry can effectively ensure the real-time and accuracy of information collection, improve the level of food safety and monitoring management, coordinate all aspects of the food chain, increase the transparency of people's understanding of food, and ensure the safety of food Row. The application of RFID technology in the food industry mainly has the following aspects:
2.1 Application of RFID technology in food anti-counterfeiting
Due to the current imperfect legal system in China and the unregulated market, some criminals at home and abroad, for profiteering, have specially counterfeited famous products, substituting them with good quality, forming a certain counterfeit and inferior commodity market, and seriously disrupting the social market economic order Most of the fake and inferior foods are famous wines, health products and famous special products. Compared with other anti-counterfeiting technologies such as digital anti-counterfeiting, laser anti-counterfeiting and other anti-counterfeiting technologies, RFID has the advantage that each tag has a globally unique ID number and cannot be modified and counterfeited; no mechanical wear and anti-magnetic RFID reader has a physical interface that is not directly open to the end user to ensure its own security; there is a mutual authentication process between the reader and the tag; and RFID can withstand high temperatures and use Long life and large storage capacity; tags are easily integrated into various products, which can greatly increase the difficulty and cost of counterfeiters.
In California, the United States, Sea Smoke Cellars winery attached RFID tags to wine barrels and then tracked the wine information to prevent channeling goods.
The RFID Research Center of the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an RFID anti-counterfeiting system for alcohol. The system consists of specially designed caps and bottles, communication networks, RFID readers and anti-counterfeiting database servers.
2.2 RFID technology is used for food tracking and tracing
The concept of traceability defined in the EU General Food Law is: the ability to trace and track food, feed, food animals or substances that are expected to be added to food or feed in all stages of production, processing and marketing. The food safety traceability system is to use modern information labeling technology to effectively mark each node of the whole process of the food supply chain. The food chain, raw materials, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, sales and other links in the supply chain carry out quality control and Tracking and tracing, information flow and physical logistics are systematically combined. Once a health hazard is found, according to the information that must be recorded at all stages of the production and sales process, the flow direction is tracked, and food safety emergency response measures such as food recall or delisting are taken.Food tracking and tracing is the main application of RFID technology in the food industry. The application of RFID systems can ensure high-quality data exchange in the food supply chain, thoroughly implement "source" food tracking solutions and provide full transparency in the food supply chain. The RFID system can provide the connection between food and sources in the food chain to ensure the clarity of the food source to track specific animals or plants and farms, thereby achieving "from farmland to table" quality monitoring and traceability.
In recent years, there have been many food safety incidents endangering human health in livestock and poultry and their products in the world, such as the "mad cow disease incident" in the United Kingdom, the "dioxin incident" in Belgium, the "O157 outbreak epidemic incident" in Japan, and the "foot-and-mouth disease" Incidents, as well as the "SARS incident" in 2003 and the "avian influenza incident" that affected many countries and regions in 2004. A series of large-scale meat and meat product safety incidents have resulted in considerable losses and serious consequences.
The US government requires that food cattle must be accompanied by electronic tags. Using RFID technology to track livestock and poultry to obtain the connection between meat food and its animal source in the food supply chain, the source of meat food can be traced to achieve the purpose of providing people with assured food.
The Beijing Food Safety Supervision and Coordination Office proposed in 2006 to use ear tags and foot tags on animal products in key breeding bases, and to use RFID technology in slaughtering, production and circulation to achieve livestock product breeding, acquisition, slaughter, segmentation, and transportation 3. Sales information is recorded to form a trace file for easy tracking.
Shanghai has established a pork monitoring system based on RFID technology, and put electronic radio frequency ear tags on pig ears to record pig feed, medical records, feeding, group transfer, quarantine and other information. Use RFID cards for "point-to-point" supervision before entering major city crossings and slaughterhouses to ensure that pigs enter the designated slaughterhouses. In the wholesale market, electronic tags are used to record the origin of pork traded, the transaction time, and the safety inspection results of edible agricultural products.
2.3 RFID technology is used for food quality monitoring
In the processing and storage of food, factors such as temperature, humidity, and time have a great influence on food quality. It is very important to record and analyze these factors. Combining RFID technology with sensor technology, it can sense the temperature, humidity, and light and other status information of surrounding items and the environment, and can use wireless communication technology to conveniently transmit these status information and its changes.
Fresh Alert has built-in temperature sensors and timers in RFID tags to signal when food is rotten and inedible.
SYSCO, the largest food service marketing and distribution organization in North America, has completed testing of radio frequency and sensor systems for cryogenic storage and transportation systems, showing that RFID technology has the ability to monitor temperature and environmental conditions during food transportation.
Japan NTT Company carried out the experiment of using RFID technology to keep the wine quality fresh, by monitoring the temperature change during transportation to grasp the quality change of rice wine.
2.4 RFID technology is used for food logistics management
In order to ensure that food will not be sent or lost by mistake in transportation and circulation, or to reduce logistics costs and improve transportation efficiency, the entire logistics process needs to be monitored and managed. The application of RFID technology to the food logistics management system can give full play to its long-distance identification and multi-tag simultaneous processing features, greatly improving the food sorting ability, processing speed and accuracy, and reducing the risk of misdelivery or loss. Huge losses. In addition, when tracking important materials or dangerous goods, or searching for a certain item among many items, the application of RFID technology can also greatly improve work efficiency. Transport companies and sales companies can also grasp the latest position of goods through unlimited radio frequency identification technology, and can prevent problems such as theft and package adjustment.
Canadian Atlas Refrigerated Storage Group widely uses RFID systems in its food logistics cold chain in low temperature environments, which not only reduces the labor intensity of workers, but also greatly improves efficiency, and promotes the integration of food cold storage and cold chain management .
Australia’s Moraitis has replaced the barcode with its RFID system to manage the transportation and sales of its hydroponic tomatoes. The system can provide the company with accurate data, including the packaging time, location, packaging date, and quality, category, and size.
In the past five years, Shanghai Wufeng listed companies have put into operation RFID slaughtering and implementation of the production monitoring and management system to mark and load related data to the pigs, and realize the data collection and information management of the whole process of slaughter and production, so that production managers can grasp and understand in time Product production and quality status.
2.5 Application of RFID technology in other aspects
In addition, RFID technology can be used for the control of processing objects and processing stations to ensure the precise control of the product's precise formulation and improve product quality; RFID technology can also quickly identify the cause of product failure and improve product quality in a timely manner; RFID technology can also be used In the feeding industry, it can be used to identify animals, record and control the plague, etc. Mainly include collar electronic tags, button-type electronic ear tags, ear injection electronic tags, and rumen electronic tags placed through the esophagus. information.
3 RFID technology prospect
RFID technology is developing rapidly at home and abroad. It can be applied to multiple links in the food field, which can ensure the safety of food, effectively control the outbreak of food-borne diseases, exclude some restrictions of China's food import and export laws and regulations, for food The development of the product industry provides technical guarantee. RFID is a booming technology with huge market potential. China's radio frequency identification technology and application are still in the initial stage of development, but as technology improves and costs and prices fall, its development potential is huge, and the prospect is also very attractive.
