RFID Technology in Food Safety
RFID technology in food safety is like freshly baked bread. It’s fresh out of the innovative oven and being consumed by all in the food industry. As one of the technological ‘bakers’, or should we say trailblazers in the food garment sector, our RFID technology, RFID tracking systems, and software systems help ensure food safety through the management of clean garments
We’re one of the leaders preventing another ‘Listeriosis’ outbreak, which, in recent news, is seeing a South African court in South Africa overturning a previous decision to make companies divulge information in relation to a deadly Listeria outbreak of 2017 and 2018. As every local will know, We saw an outbreak of listeriosis that sickened more than 1 050 people and killed 218 individuals.
Should you and your team labourously go through items and perform labour-intensive manual tasks like separating and counting, then it’s time to implement the Inteltag Uniform System.
Looking at Pioneer Foods, the South African Bureau of Standards is now announcing a spate of food recalls which is further highlighting the need for comprehensive management systems to be put in place to ensure food safety in South Africa. The recent issues experienced with listeriosis, leaking cans, expired nuts and fruit and contaminated peanuts exposed to Salmonella bacteria are examples that demonstrate the need for food manufacturers, producers, retailers, and every organisation involved in the handling of the supply chain to be trained and certified – and for RFID solutions to be implemented.
Fortunately, with modern problems come modern solutions and currently, research and development in the field of RFID are leading the way in the reduction of such food safety issues. RFID is truly an additional precautionary measure to ensure the safety of food products sold to consumers.
Food Safety from Top to Bottom
Having consulted with many food safety managers, producers, companies, and other relevant departments, we’ve ‘served up’ interdepartmental procedures and implemented appropriate processes, helping many from top management to bottom employees to fully utilise systems to perform onsite system executions. We also focus on garments, which we know are a useful tool in the fight against poor food safety, logistics, and inventory control. With our record-keeping and real-time information on these textiles and garments, we’re actually now improving operations and food safety.
Through RFID and automated systems, every individual in the food preparation process is tracked through their worn textiles, and information is then sent to relevant personnel managing the food supply chain.
From Farm to Fork
Now RFID in the apparel industry supply chain within the food sector helps users to enjoy more agility, and this compounded the fact that RFID is a foundational technology necessary to support food safety.
Now, the food sector is leveraging the opportunity to create more data-rich options to communicate product data to close gaps in supply chain information and to ensure consistency in data exchange and product and location identification. Not forgetting, food safety.
Any leader in the industry will know, as we do, that good traceability and food safety start at the source, and data connected to textiles and garments allow for food safety from farm to fork. Whether in preparation, transit, loading, or receiving, extended data is a must-have in the supply chain to enable full product provenance, and safety and enhance visibility through greater automation.
RFID is, too, valuable for a food service operation because it also reduces inventory uncertainty and process or labour slowdowns – and we’ve seen this in reality. From a food safety perspective, RFID now plays an even bigger role in helping operators intercept potentially harmful food or practices performed by those in the food supply chain. Through textiles and mass volume garments, access is gained to updated intelligence on what linen items are in stock, what stage of the process they’re in, and which individual is negatively impacting the supply chain, and with this, precautionary measures can be made faster.
Optimising the Food Supply Chain One Textile at a Time
As discussed, RFID systems are used to ensure food safety, but we also know the other beneficial RFID applications within the food sector, and optimisation through these involves:
- Identification and traceability
- Automatic inventory and entry control in production
- Automatic control and counting of merchandise on conveyors and intralogistics systems
- Control of expeditions and shipments of linen/laundry
- Recirculation of Linen and control of supplier or customer cycles-remove
Improve, Optimize and Then Innovative
As the pandemic continues to affect the industries, faster innovation faster and evolution is needed. This complete shift and a heavy focus on RFID in textiles is an undeniable catalyst for enhanced traceability and inventory management. After all, food safety management is key.
Now, RFID solutions and their application is improving all spheres of the food sector and benefiting all involved in the industry from packers, suppliers, business owners, and consumers. For ultimate food safety, speak to IntelTag.
Sources:
- https://www.detego.com/retail_insights_en/retail-en/rfid_food_industry/
- https://bitrebels.com/technology/5-ways-rfid-tags-used-food-industry/
- https://bionixtechnologies.com/en/blog/6-advantages-of-rfid-to-optimize-the-food-sector/
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7033876?arnumber=7033876
- https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2009.01323.x
- https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/kwazulu-natal/south-african-bureau-of-standards-calls-for-food-safety-management-after-a-spate-of-food-recalls-2d8aaa78-7603-4b43-bd73-ed760003561a
- https://www.foodsafetynews.com/tag/south-africa/
