Restoring Confidence in the Food Chain

The government could set up a central database with the appropriate security controls to allow companies to share shipments data, as well as record the movements of goods through the supply chain. A lot of work has already been conducted in this area. Jean Pierre Emond, co-director of the University of Florida's Center for Food Distribution and Retailing, has worked on a number of projects in this area with Publix Super Markets, Del Monte Fresh Produce and others.

A government-backed effort, similar to the BRIDGE project funded by the Europe Union (see BRIDGE Project Members Press Ahead and BRIDGE Expects to Launch Five European RFID Pilots This Fall), could point the way for industry adoption. The goal would be to determine an approach to implementing a national track-and-trace system using a variety of technologies that would both protect the public and provide benefits to companies using the system.

Collecting information regarding the movement of goods is labor-intensive and expensive, because people must be employed to manually scan bar codes or record serial numbers with pencil and paper. RFID would enable companies to collect the data automatically, thereby reducing labor costs. The cost of the RFID tag would initially be an inhibitor, but the government could jump-start adoption by helping to fund the deployment. As RFID technology is more widely used, tag costs would come down and benefits would rise, making it economically feasible for companies to deploy a track-and-trace system.

If companies and the government fail to act now, there is a chance an incident will cause the deaths of enough people that governments will mandate a track-and-trace system that imposes onerous data-collection burdens on firms without delivering additional supply chain benefits. That would be very unfortunate for consumers—and for businesses as well.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark's opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or click here.