RFID Can Aid Green Initiatives

Aug. 1, 2011—This year, RFID Journal introduced its newest RFID Journal Award—the Green Award—to highlight how some companies are employing radio frequency identification to reduce their environmental impact. Our winner, announced in April at RFID Journal LIVE! 2011, was Gruma Corp.'s Mission Foods subsidiary.

Mission Foods, one of the largest producers of corn flour and tortilla products, provides nearly one-quarter of all tortillas sold worldwide, as well as wraps, salsas, snacks and other food products. Previously, the company shipped tortilla chips and other light food products in corrugated boxes that cost $1 apiece. Mission Foods was spending more than $5 million annually on boxes that ended up in landfills after only a single use.


In 2009, Mission Foods opted to replace the disposable corrugated boxes with reusable plastic containers that cost $7 apiece. These containers each needed to be used at least eight times in order to justify the switch. The key to the project was tracking the containers with RFID, so that they wouldn't get lost, thereby leading to additional expenses.

During the planning process, Technology Container Corp. (TCC), which Mission Foods chose to supply the plastic containers, conducted a study of the economic and environmental savings that the food supplier could expect to achieve by eliminating the use of corrugated boxes at all of its U.S. facilities. TCC determined that over a five-year period, Mission Foods would save approximately $15 million, as well as decrease energy consumption by 91 percent, eliminate solid waste by 98 percent and reduce greenhouse gases by 90 percent.