Tracing and Tracking Agriculture Products; Tracing en tracking Landbouwproducten

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Delft University of Technology

FACULTY MECHANICAL, MARITIME AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

Department Marine and Transport Technology Mekelweg 2 2628 CD Delft the Netherlands Phone +31 (0)15-2782889 Fax +31 (0)15-2781397 www.mtt.tudelft.nl

Specialization: Transport Engineering and Logistics Report number: 2014.TEL.7877

Title: Tracing and Tracking Agriculture Products Author: K.B.Chhadva

Title (in Dutch) Tracing en tracking Landbouwproducten Assignment: literature

Confidential: no

Supervisor: Dr. Ir. Y. Pang

Date: October 20, 2014

This report consists of 48 pages and 0 appendices. It may only be reproduced literally and as a whole. For commercial purposes only with written authorization of Delft University of Technology. Requests for consult are only taken into consideration under the

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T

U

Delft

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL, MARITIME AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

Delft University of Teclinology Department of Marine and Transport Technology Mekelweg 2 2628 CD Delft the Netherlands Phone +31 (0)15-2782889 Fax +31 (0)15-2781397 www.mtt.tudelft.nl

Student: Kaushal Chhadva Supervisor: Yusong Pang Specialization: TEL Creditpoints (EC): 10

Assignment type: Literature Assignment Report number: 2014.TEL.7877 Confidential: No

Subject: Tracing and Tracking Agriculture Products

Agriculture products, such as grains, vegetables, fruits and flowers, are generally recognized as the un-processed products of farms and plants to be moved through supply chains to end customers or processers. Especially for perishable agriculture products, the transport and storage should be done in atmosphere controlled conditions followed by just-in-time delivery. To increase the visibility of during transport and logistics, the demand of traceability and trackability continuously increases nowadays with respect to the effectiveness and accuracy during transport, inventory control and warehouse management.

This assignment is to investigate the technologies, challenges and opportunities in the field of tracing and tracking agriculture products. After a summary of agriculture production and the distribution processes of agriculture products, the study of this assignment should cover the following:

• to survey the supply chain and logistics requirements of agriculture products; • to investigate the requirements of tracing and tracking agriculture products; • to review the state of the art technologies for tracing and tracking;

• to summarize the current development of tracing and tracking and to indicate the challenges and opportunities for future development.

This report should be arranged in such a way that all data is structurally presented in graphs, tables, and lists with belonging descriptions and explanations in text.

The report should comply with the guidelines of the section. Details can be found on the website.

The mentor.

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Summary

In this era of globalization the transportation and logistics in the field of agriculture products has increased at a rapid pace. This has resulted into big and more complex supply chains networks. The journey of agricultural products like grains, fruits and vegetables from farm to fork contains lot of intermediate agents. For efficient management of such big supply chain tracking and tracing are very important. In past 15 years lot of research has been done for developing products like Bar codes, Radio frequency identification (RFID) and Global positioning system (GPS) which are used for tracing and tracking the products. The main aim of this literature survey was to find the need of tracing and tracking in agro supply chain and technology development in this field.

This literature survey is divided in three parts. The agriculture products supply chain is explained in first part. The second part explains the need of supply chain traceability. The technology for tracing and tracking are discussed in third part.

Agriculture Supply chain

Agricultural supply chains include many different commodities that are grown in different regions at different time periods of the year, and are transported through different modes. Typical supply chain start at farms and ends at retailers from where consumers buy the products. It includes main agents like farmers, storage and warehouse providers, transporters, processors, distributors and retailers. Along with main products, there is also exchange of information and capital along the supply chain. For better management of that tracing and tracking is needed.

Main drivers for tracing and tracking

The food quality issue is main driver for tracking and tracing in supply chain. Every year millions of people get ill by eating contaminated food. By tracing and tracking point of contamination can be identified. In several situations the contaminated products are discovered, but by that time other products of same batch are already distributed in retail chain and that makes it hard to recall back those products. But by having tracing and tracking, those products can be tracked and recalled from retailers. This will also increase the customer’s confidence on agro companies. Moreover, it also helps in reducing inventory across the agents of supply chain thus reducing storage costs. An automatic scanning technique of tracing and tracking also reduces labor costs and increases efficiency. The products like fruits and vegetables which are many times transported by special containers, tracing and tracking helps in identifying the location of those

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Technology for tracing and tracking

For tracing and tracking products in supply chain network, the first process is to read the information from the products and to send the information to the servers. Products contain information on bar codes or RFID tags. This information is readed by using specific readers. Then it is transferred to computer by data cables or wirelessly. But for agro products supply chain there use is challenging.

Agro products like grains are handled in bulk quantities from farm until they are packed, for tracking this RFID chips of the size of grain has been developed which can be combined with grains in containers. This requires completely new infrastructure for dispatching tags at uniform rate into grains containers, reading/writing information on tags and for removing the tags from grain containers. For fruits and vegetables which need to be transported at uniform temperatures to maintain its quality, a semi passive or active RFID tag which has ability to record temperature is very useful. Based on the Arrhenius model temperature and shelf life (measure for quality) are related. But still RFID technology is not widely used in this field. The bar codes are more commonly used on products for tracing and tracking. This technology is 40 years old and is used worldwide in different field. So worldwide standards like European Article Numbering and Global Trade Item Number has been developed for it. But, bar codes have many limitations as compared to RFID like line of sight requirement, limited data storage and are more susceptible to environmental damage.

Conclusion

From this report it is clear that tracking and tracing in agricultural supply chain is very vital to promote safety of food from contamination and also to increase efficiency of processes in supply chain. The technologies discussed here like RFID grain chips and an RFID tag for perishable goods has high potential for solving problem of tracing and tracking in supply chain. This have been tested by experiments but are not used commercially because of limitations like limited reading range, effect of metals and liquid on reading performances, costs and effective data management which needs to resolved. Also, the economic feasibility of the technology needs to be investigated.

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List of Abbreviations

1) TTS – Tracing and Tracking system

2) RFID – Radio frequency Identification

3) GPS – Global positioning system

4) FIFO – First in first out

5) Wi Fi – Wireless Fidelity

6) UHF – Ultra high frequency

7) HF – High frequency

8) GPRS – General Packet Radio Service

9) GTIN – Global Trade Item Number

10) EAN – European Article Numbering

11) UCC – Unique Country Code

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1. Introduction

During the recent two decades, goods flow has been tremendously increased, even though the amount of goods remains at the steady state. Increased variety of goods, the just-in-time delivery system, low load rate, specialization and centralization of production systems, globalization of marketing and seasonal variations are among the main challenges of logistics system which may lead to the necessity of developing effective logistics in every sector. Effective logistics requires delivering the right product, in the right quantity, in the right condition, to the right place, at the right time, for the right cost. For this purpose tracking and tracing are very essential. This literature survey focusses on technology for tracing and tracking in supply chain.

Tracking system refers to the ability of tracking the path of a particular unit or a batch of products from upstream to downstream along supply chain. Tracing system means the ability to distinguish the particular unit or a batch of products’ source from downstream to upstream along supply chain [1]. In other words tracing is mainly used to discover quality problem. The process of tracking and tracing is shown in Fig. 1 [2]:

Fig. 1 Tracing and Tracking

Tracking and tracing system (TTS) of agricultural product logistics is an information management system linking each sector such as manufacture, inspection, supervision, consumption, etc. in order to display the health and safety-from farm to table.

For the agro-based food chain, Wilson and Clarke (1998) defined food traceability as the information necessary to describe the production history of a food crop, and any subsequent transformations or processes that the crop might be subject to on its journey from the grower to the consumer’s plate [3].

In this literature survey, main focus is on agricultural products supply chain. The Agricultural products are grains, vegetables, fruits, plants for biofuel and medicines. In this report the scope is limited to grains and perishable goods like fruits & vegetables.

For tracing and tracking purpose, data collection at all stages of supply chain network is very essential. This report discusses the technologies like Bar Code, Radio-frequency identification (RFID), and Global Positioning system (GPS) which are used for data collection in supply chain networks. RFID technology integrated with GPS is discussed in detail. All necessary equipment’s and processes are covered in this report. The Bar Code technology is very

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1. Introduction

useful after processing and packaging of goods. But, its use is quite limited for tracing and tracking of raw agriculture products due to its limitation of direct line of sight for reading and inability to store data of temperature. Hence, it is discussed in very short in the report.

In this report, the results of literature survey are presented, giving insight about the technology for tracking and tracing of raw agriculture products and technological challenges. The assignment can be found in the beginning of this report, right after title page. The goal of this survey is to investigate the requirement of tracing and tracking of agriculture goods and technology available for that. This report is the result of a two month period of searching in online databases, books from the university library and other scientific journals. The report is split up in five main sections. In section 2, the agriculture supply chain will be presented by describing supply chain networks and all the agents and their roles. In section 3, the needs for tracing and tracking agriculture goods in supply chain is presented. Various needs like Health safety, warehouse management, accurate lot control and more will be discussed. In section 4, the available technology for tracing and tracking like RFID, GPS and Bar codes will be described. And the last is conclusion which will contain the technical challenges and available opportunities in this field.

In section 4, RFID technology will be discussed in detailed. Whole process of agriculture goods from farm to processing industry or export terminal is discussed with RFID implementation in each stage, giving the reader some idea about the working of the technology. All the equipment’s and ICT systems used are discussed in short, for further details reader is referred to source of the literature. The use of RFID tags for temperature monitoring and management is also discussed in section 4.2. Three theories of calculating shelf life of products by monitoring temperature are explained and case studies supporting these theories are described. The application of Bar Code in tracing and tracking and its comparison with RFID is presented in section 4.3.

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2. Agriculture Supply chain

2. Agriculture Supply chain

The importance of supply chain management in agriculture sector is increasing worldwide due to the growing consumer concerns over safety and quality together with retailer demands for large volumes of consistent and reliable product. In developed countries, post-harvest losses are generally small during processing, storage and handling as efficiency of machines is high, due to better storage facilities, and control of critical variables by a skilled and trained staff. Recently, the concept of Agricultural and Food Logistics has been under development as more effective and efficient management system is required for the agro products production planning, physical collection of primary produce from farms, processing and storage at various levels, handling, packaging, and distribution of final product [4].

Agricultural supply chains are distinctive in the sense that they include many different commodities that are grown in different regions at different time periods of the year, and are transported through different modes. Agricultural commodities have different end uses such as food, feed, industrial and energy and are relatively homogenous. They are transported and stored in bulk quantities which range from hundreds to several thousand metric tons.

Fig. 2 describes a typical agriculture supply chain of grains [5]. A typical bulk grain supply chain starts from a seed company. The farmers buy seeds from a seed company and after harvesting, sell their crop to a grain elevator. The grain elevators handle bulk commodities for mixing and storing purpose. Grain lots are mixed in order to meet buyer specifications and to maximize the profit. Grain storage bins are extensively used to handle bulk grain and one storage bin can contain grain from many different sources. The elevators either sell the grain directly to a processor or ship it to a river terminal for overseas export. In case of an overseas export, the river terminal sells the grain to an export terminal which sells the grain to an overseas terminal. These terminals handle the grain in a similar fashion as an elevator. The grain lots are commingled to maximize profit and lot identity is not maintained [5].

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The grain handlers (an elevator or an overseas importer) sell the grain to an ingredient processor. In the ingredient processing plant, the grain is processed into a final product with addition of other ingredients. Grain lots are mixed again and the finished product can contain grain from many different sources. The ingredient processor sells its product to the final processor where this product is used to manufacture the final product with addition of other products and ingredients while undergoing many processing steps. The final product is sold to the distributor and finally to the retailer for sale to the customer [6].

For the fruits and Vegetables two different kinds of supply chain are used. One is similar to as that of grains, in which many agents like whole sellers, sub wholesaler, retailers and market yard are involved. Second one is more direct and involves fewer agents. Generally this is followed by the private retailers and supermarkets for better managing their supply chain. In this method retailers directly buy it from the farmer, do the storage and sell it to customers in their own shops. Fig. 3 demonstrates both the supply chain [7].

Fig. 3 Difference in supply chain

Thus, in the agro supply chain many stakeholders such as farmers, processors, vendors/agents, wholesalers, rural retailers and suppliers and transporters are involved. At all levels, information flow management is essential for maintain the food quality throughout the chain as shown in Fig. 4 [4].

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2.1.1 Requirements for agricultural supply chain

Contrary to the industrial product, agricultural product has its own characteristics embodied in its life [8] [2]:

(1) Restricted by natural conditions, the growth of agricultural product is obviously seasonal, and the output is unstable. However, the requirement of agricultural product is lasting and stable. (2) The planting regions are usually centralized within some areas, but the consumers are distributed all over the nation.

(3) Agricultural product almost grows depending on the nature, so it is not standardized. (4) Agricultural product has short life cycle.

Owing to these characteristics, agricultural product logistics is different from industrial product logistics. Temperature, humidity and other atmospheric conditions affects the products. So, during the logistics controlled atmospheric conditions must be maintained. According to the different classifying criterion, the categories of agricultural product logistics can be diversified. The classification of agricultural product logistics as shown in the Table 1 [2]:

No Criterion Contents of categories

1 logistics phase production logistics, distribution logistics, waste logistics

2 logistics object grain logistics, crops logistics, animals logistics, aquatic products logistics, forest products logistics

3 logistics subject producer-logistics-suppliers, buyer-logistics-suppliers, third-party-logistics-suppliers

Table 1. Classification of agricultural product logistics

In this survey distribution logistics was covered and main focus was on grain and perishable fruits and vegetables logistics. Grain logistics is different than perishable logistics, as grains are handled in bulk from farm to processing industry. While, vegetables and fruits are packaged at farms and are handled in controlled climatic conditions. In section 4 of this report, tracing and tracking technology for both grains and perishable goods will be discussed separately.

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2.1.2 Traceability in supply chain network

Effective supply chain traceability can only be achieved by coordination among the actors. Each actor in the supply chain must not only know who their supplier is, but also to whom the trade units are being sold. In order to implement traceability in agricultural supply chains, technological innovations are needed for product identification, process and environmental characterization, information capture, analysis, storage and transformation, as well as overall system integration. An agro traceability system is fundamentally based on four pillars of product identification, data to trace, product routing and traceability tools. These four pillars are shown in Fig. 5 [9]:

Fig. 5 Four pillars of traceability

Maitri Thakur & Charles R. Hurburgh in 2009 has explained the case diagram with agents and corresponding information they should record [6]. Case diagram is an example of what happens when someone interacts with the system. One of the most important goals of defining system requirements is to have synchronization among the requirements of all actors involved. Fig. 6 shows the Case diagram for the grain supply chain traceability system.

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The following case example proposes all the actors and the information they should obtain and share for establishing traceability in supply chain [6]:

Record breeding practices: The seed company would record the seed development practices used in the traceability system. For example: genetically modified, organic practices, seed purity test, duration for which seed was stored, etc.

Record farming practices: The farmer would record the farming practices used for a specific crop in the system. The data such as the seed variety used, date of planting, chemical application, harvesting, etc., would be recorded. The information such as organic practices would be recorded for specialty crops.

Record handling and storage practices: The supply chain actors should be able to record the handling and storage practices used by them in the system.

Record processing practices: The processor should be able to record the processing practices used in the system. Depending on the process and final product, this may include the cooking temperature, holding time, ingredients added, etc.

Authenticate claims: The system users (supply chain actors) should be able to authenticate their claims based on the data stored in the system. For example, on request, the system should be able to provide data to support organic farming or processing practices.

Comply with food safety regulations: Using the traceability system, within the time requirements provided, the users should be able to provide data to show that their production or processing practices comply with the food safety regulations. For example, a processor must be able to show that the processing conditions used to manufacture a product are in compliance with the food safety regulations. This data must be recorded in the traceability system and provided on demand by regulatory authorities

Document chain of custody: On request, the traceability system should be able to provide information about a specific trade unit that would document the chain of custody of that unit. In case of a food safety emergency, it is very important to know where a particular trade unit is in the supply chain at a given time.

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Fig. 6 Grain supply chain traceability system [6]

Fig. 6 shows the grain supply chain actors and the information that should be record and pass onto the next link in the supply chain. It is clear that not all of the information is passed to the next link in the supply chain due to the coordination problems arising from business interests. However, it is important that all the relevant lot of information is passed to the next link. The goal is to achieve supply chain traceability, so it is important that each actor maintains a traceability system using database management systems and share the needed information.

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3. Drivers for tracing and tracking in Agricultural Product Logistics

3 Drivers for tracing and tracking in Agricultural Product Logistics

Fig. 7 Drivers for traceability of food supply chain

Fig. 7 shows that the traceability can help in maintaining food safety and quality [1]. The supply chain traceability can make communication more convenient, increase supply chain efficiency, for businesses it can help in trade globalization and decreases labor costs and for legislative bodies it helps in maintaining laws on quality requirements by collecting real time accurate data about the products [1]. These points discussed are discussed in detail:

1) Health Safety Issues

Food quality, including safety, is a major concern faced by the food industry today. The production and consumption of food is central to any society and has a wide range of social, economic and in many cases environmental consequences.

Food safety is an increasingly vital public health issue. Outbreaks of foodborne illness can damage trade and tourism, lead to a loss of earnings and creates unemployment. Globally, the incidence of foodborne diseases is increasing and international food trade is disturbed by frequent disputes over food safety and quality requirements. Unsafe food causes many acute and life-long diseases, ranging from diarrhoeal diseases to various forms of cancers [10].

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases taken together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children. In

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industrialized countries, the percentage of the population suffering from foodborne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States (US), for example, around 76 million cases of foodborne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year. The high occurrence of diarrhoeal diseases in many developing countries highlights major underlying food safety problems [11] [12].

It is even worse in less developed countries. There are estimated 2,163,000 deaths annually throughout the world caused by diarrheal diseases including 684,000 in Southeast Asian region. In 2002, in China more than 200 school children fell sick and 38 died due to bakery food poisoning allegedly done by competitor. Many such examples exist throughout the world. Though it is discovered that food is contaminated but it is hard to trace to save people on time. [12]. The WHO stated that foodborne diseases not only significantly affect people’s health and well-being, but they also have economic consequences for individuals, families, communities, businesses and countries. These diseases impose a substantial burden on health-care systems and obviously reduce economic productivity. In the European Union, annual costs levelled on the health care system as a consequence of salmonella infections are estimated to be around 3 billion euros. The medical costs and the value of the lives lost during just five foodborne outbreaks in England and Wales in 1996 were estimated at UK£ 300e700 million [1].

In many countries, one of the problems concerning food safety and quality is food spoilage. Food spoilage is wasteful, costly and can adversely affect trade and consumer confidence. Naturally, all foods have a limited life time and most foods are perishable. Safe and high quality chilled foods require minimal contamination during manufacture, rapid chilling and temperature control along the chain. Temperature mishandling in the food cold chain can make microbial growth and spoilage of food and are factors in causing foodborne illness. The International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) indicates that about 300 million tonnes of produce are wasted annually through deficient refrigeration worldwide [1] [13].

Currently, to build customer confidence and to achieve safety and quality, participants in food supply rely on two methodologies. One manages food supply chains via regulations/standards or certifications. The second records logistics operations and production processes via a food traceability system that provides transparent trace back and track forward information.

Hence, the agro industry is looking at supply chain visibility technologies to improve food safety and to increase consumer confidence. The above mentioned social, economic and environmental accidents are a prime example of where RFID and bar codes in supply chain can provide timely, actionable data related to the movement of goods throughout the supply chain and traceability for regulatory compliance.

Full food supply chain visibility provides an extra protection when a food borne illness occurs. Visibility allows farmers and distributors/retailers to determine if the contamination occurred at the grower, or was introduced within the distribution & transportation process, and who might else be affected.

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2) Reduce Inventory and storage costs

Timely view of inventory can lead to reduction in storage costs. Improved reordering techniques can be used when the real time inventory is known. Excess inventory can result in increased waste from foods that spoil, are pilfered, or simply wasted due to overproduction or obsolescence. When inventory is high, it is harder to keep track of what products are on hand, more storage space is required, money is tied up, and it is harder to control waste than when inventory is kept at low levels. This is true for both raw ingredients and finished products. On the other hand, not having enough of products, whether due to lack of ingredients or inadequate forecasting, leads to customer disappointment [14].

Consider the following case example:

The baking industry reduced its inventory and distribution costs by $3 million in the first year after installing an automated pallet labeling and identification system. Industry had six warehouses throughout the U.S. and previously was not able to measure and balance inventory throughout its operations. Afterwards it started printing and applying bar code labels to all its cases and pallets and then scanning the bar codes to capture quantity, location and product identification numbers, including lot codes. The system enabled the company to gain an accurate, timely view of inventory and to increase the average number of pallets per shipment from 47 to 61, a 30 percent improvement. By increasing load yields, the company significantly reduced the need for expense less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments to customers to fulfill orders, which contributed greatly to cost savings [13].

3) Automatic Identification Helps Business

Traceability technologies provide efficient, accurate ways to comply with regulations such as the Bioterrorism Act and the EU Food Law, which require businesses to collect, process, and store vast amounts of information. Recent legislation in the U.S. includes the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749), which seeks to improve the safety of food from both domestic and international sources. Automated data collection decreases the time and expenses required for data processing, while increases business processes efficiency. Data collection by bar code and RFID is exceptionally accurate (accuracy often tops 99 percent), which can help prevent errors in order picking and shipping from the food industry [13] [15].

Bar code or RFID scanning records product codes, lot numbers, invoice data, order numbers, and other necessary information in less than a second. Gathering this information manually is time consuming, because workers must first record the information at the point of activity, and then transfer this data into the computer system.

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4) Enable Cross-Docking

RFID also facilitate efficient cross docking. Incoming pallets or cartons with smart labels automatically route through conveyor systems to other dock doors because the fast-reading capabilities enable instant identification of the shipping container plus all of the individual items inside. For shipping, RFID readers can help packers quickly locate and aggregate all the items needed to complete the load [13].

For example, H&M bay a company for transporting temperature controlled freights has started using RFID at its distribution centers in Federalsburg. H&M says the install has resulted in a 25 percent reduction in cross-docking labor, allowing workers to concentrate on fulfilling customer orders instead of repetitive warehouse tasks. At the distribution centers, RFID tags are placed at each storage location along with each pallet to facilitate product control and automate the tracking of inventory in the cooler and freezer storage rooms. The mobile RFID readers detect tagged pallets and tagged storage locations, triggering H&M Bay’s automated inventory system to record when a pallet has been removed from its location and where it has been placed [16]. 5) Accurate Lot Control

Putting lot numbers and expiration dates on a bar code/ RFID makes it easy to record the information accurately and automatically at any point in the supply chain. This capability improves data accuracy, while reducing the effort needed to record and transcribe the information. Production management, enterprise resource planning, environmental health and safety monitoring, and other systems frequently require lot-level traceability. Lot numbers may be encoded into bar codes or RFID tags and applied to pallet, case, inner pack or item-level packaging. The lot codes are contained in bar code or stored in RFID tag in addition to human-readable text which enables scanning and processing by automated systems. Inventory management systems, for example, can use variable lot code and other information to reduce waste by ensuring that processes follow first-in, first-out requirements. The foods and vegetables which are perishables needs to be consumed within certain days can be tracked and sold at the earliest [13].

For example, Intermech machinery which is a distributor and manufacturer of industrial automation components in Singapore is using RFID to help track and manage inventory and production at its new 52,000-square-foot factory in Tuas. Its goal is to improve customer service by delivering better products more quickly. The company says it used to keep customers happy by fulfilling orders within one month but know company is serving its customer in less than 1 week time [17].

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communicate with RFID readers and multiplexers. The antennas of readers

automatically read the tags, thereby detecting the volume and age of the inventory sitting on the shelves. This allows the company to adhere to its first-in-first-out (FIFO) inventory policy, designed to reduce waste stemming from outdated materials. Many of the components Intermech offers have one-year factory warranties. If warranties expire, Intermech has to put the components through costly and time-consuming tests to have warranties reissued.

The company says that using RFID has increased company’s productivity by nearly 40% and reduced wastage by nearly 50%. Moreover, it also need less employees to need the same amount of work. And with real time data availability of products, company is able to take more orders [17]. This can also be applied to agro industry for accurate lot control of perishable goods which needs FIFO policy.

6) Return Container Management

Using automatic identification systems to track pallets, milk cartons, trays and other returnable containers can provide a strong return on investment by lowering operating expenses. Many producers and distributors lack accurate information about the quantity and location of their shipping containers because the assets often dwell at customer facilities, and are not returned promptly. As a result, businesses purchase more returnable containers to ensure they have an adequate supply, creating excess capacity and locking capital into fixed assets.

Identifying returnable containers and tracking them to customers provides the information businesses can use to improve returns and recoveries. The first step is to permanently identify each asset with a bar code label or RFID tag. Label material is available for permanent identification even when exposed to industrial cleaning, sterilization and cold storage conditions. Workers can scan the assets when they are loaded onto trucks at the distribution center, or in the field upon delivery. Systems could record the information in the customer record or order management system, or in a separate database. Managers could consult the system software to get a real-time view of container availability. By actively monitoring and managing container usage, businesses can improve cycle times and inventory turns, while lowering their fixed asset base [13].

For example, Volkswagen is employing an RFID system which was designed and installed by IBM to track 3,000 reusable containers. In this case, the carmaker is using the system at its Wolfsburg assembly plant to track metal boxes that store sunroofs as they arrive from the supplier. In large part, VW's workers have used paper records to manually manage the containers, as well as the inventory within them. However, containers often go missing, and the company has found it difficult to discover their absence in a timely matter. The auto manufacturer also wanted a way to improve visibility into its inventory as sun roofs are assembled in its vehicles [18].

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Each container tag has a unique ID number linked, in the IBM WebSphere Premises software system, to information regarding the sunroofs contained within, as well as the date and location that the tag was read. In that way, Volkswagen tracks not only the containers, but also the sunroofs. After the containers are received and their tags scanned with a fixed reader, they are then moved to the company's warehouse. the containers are brought to the assembly line, an employee with a handheld interrogator reads the container tags again, thereby indicating the items are about to be installed. The empty containers are then read once more on the route to the warehouse, and out the dock doors onto a truck, to be returned to the supplier [18].

This can also be applied in agro industry. Many fruits and vegetables are transported in containers which belong to either farmers or the wholesalers. After the products reach to retails store these should be returned back to farmers or wholesalers. If tracking system is there in the supply chain then it would be easy for these agents to effectively manage the inventory of those containers.

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4. Technology for Tracing and Tracking

4. Technology for Tracing and Tracking

For tracing and tracking products in supply chain network, the main process is to read the information from the products and to send the information to the servers. Different Technologies can be used for this purpose like bar codes and RFID for reading the information and Wi-Fi and data cables for transferring the information. Once this information is uploaded on server then this can passed on to different agents using management information systems. In this literature survey main focus is on technology like RFID for data collection throughout the supply chain. Hence, database management systems and management information systems are not discussed. In this section RFID technology for bulk handling of grains, RFID tags for perishable products and Bar codes will be discussed.

The technology of using RFID grain chips and GPS is new and not yet commercialized. This system was proposed by R. Hornbaker, V. Kindratenko and D. Pointer after their research at agriculture department, University of Illinois at Urbana. They proposed the whole conceptual system which can be used for RFID tag dispensing, reading/writing the information on tags and RFID tag removal. This system is still in conceptual phase and prototype development work is going on at university of Illinois Urbana. The information available on this is very limited and only one literature [5] was available. In the section 4.1 this conceptual system will be discussed in detail.

On other hand RFID tags equipped with temperature measurement tools have emerged as the interest of research in last few years. Their application in cold chain supply chain will help to measure and manage the temperature. Lot of research is going on in this field to improve tags performance and battery life. This technology is in use commercially but their use is not yet widespread. In section 4.2, the benefits of this tags, system working, shelf life analysis methods and case studies will be discussed. The three theories relating shelf life of food with temperature, Vitamin C and Oxygen & Carbon di oxide concentration will be explained with case studies. At the end of section article of RFID journal on commercial use of RFID tags for temperature management will be presented.

The application of Bar Codes is discussed in section 4.3. In agro products this technology is currently used for packaged goods. To use it for tracing and tracking new barcodes are needed at every agent of supply chain because codes are not rewritable. The coding structures used by various agents of supply chain will be discussed. At the end of section 4.3, RFID and Bar codes will be compared.

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4.1 Using RFID grain tag and GPS for agriculture grains.

RFID is a term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. Here, RFID tag is the key component of the suggested grain tracking system. The tag is dimensioned to approximate a size of an individual grain and many such tags are deposited in a container of the grain at the harvesting stage. At all grain handling stage the tags are programmed with the time and location of the event and with other characteristics relevant to the handling process, for example like humidity, quantity stored, serial number of equipment, etc [5]. Thus, the entire history of grain handling is stored in the tags and can be read any time. New tags can be introduced in the handled grain or removed from the grain at any processing stage, as required.

From the context of food security and economic value the system has the ability to [5] :

 Trace back, with visualization tools, the entire transportation path of the tracked grain from the end use/processor to storage, road transport back to field of harvest and origination of seed stock.

 The data base for information on identification of grain location with specific qualities or characteristics.

 Connection to other databases for recognizing other attribute information associated with the grain.

 Recognizing alternate sources of food and export safe grain when potential contamination or agro-bio-terrorism events occur.

Consider an example where grains are exported. As discussed in section 2 they pass through various stages from harvesting to final processing before reaching to customers. For tracing and tracking RFID chips should be present at all stages. So the information on the real time status of the grain is obtained.

Here the handling processes are different than for normal packaged products in supply chains. The grains are handled in bulk quantities without packaging so it requires completely new technology for tracing and tracking. As conventional RFID tags does not work here, RFID tags of the same size that of grains are used. These tags are added to bulk quantities of grain after harvesting and removed at time of processing. The process requires equipment’s like tag dispenser which dispenses tags at uniform rate and tag remover which removes tags from at last stage of the process. The conceptual design of this equipment’s is discussed in section 4.1.1.

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Following Fig. 8 gives the demonstration of the stages through which grain passes before being exported. Here, only the supply chain network of export is considered from section 2.

Stage 1) Harvesting of grains Stage 2) Transfer to tractor (www.Asme.org) (www.Asme.org)

Stage 3) Transfer to truck Stage 4) farm storage and transfer between (Grainsystems.com) bins for drying (Grainsystems.com)

Stage 5) Transport by truck Stage 6) Grain processing

(Newharvest.com) (alliancegrains.com)

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RFID chips are introduced in 1st stage and extracted at last stage. For all in between stages RFID chips has ability to read and write data.

Starting with stage 1 there will be detailed identity/tracking information written to each RFID tag. Each tag will have its own unique identity number (ID). The tags will be deposited in the grain bin during harvest at some rate (for example: one per every 15 Kg of grain harvested). At the deposition points the tags will get info by a RFID read/write device linked to the GPS, which will be encoded with the current clock date/time, the current GPS coordinates, and the serial number. At stages 2 and 3 (transfer to the grain cart and truck transport) the tags will be programmed with additional information of the current time and GPS coordinates during the grain transfer process and with IDs of the grain cart, truck details, etc. In these first three stages the time and GPS coordinates will vary for each RFID tag [5].

The stage 4 includes storage, drying and handling portion of the system. The RFID tags will be programmed again with additional time and GPS coordinate and ID information at stage 4 when they leave the truck to enter the grain holding bin. In this case the GPS coordinate will be a fixed location for the site with an ID number for each bin at the site. In cases, such as wet corn the grain may be transferred to a dryer and then to the final holding bin. In these cases the tags will again be encoded with the time and ID at transfer, thereby allow later calculation of storage time in each bin and drying time.

At stage 5 the grain will go through another truck transfer and then move to a stage 6 which is export terminal or grain processor where again the final encoding, reading and extraction will occur unless the grain goes directly to stage 7 export where extraction of chip can occur at the international processor.

Fig. 9 below shows the data recorded on RFID tag [5]. At given time, the tags will contain complete history of product movement, storage, and processing, including time and location of transaction and serial numbers or IDs of relevant equipment, storage facilities, etc. Additional information, such as rate at which RFID tags were inserted, moisture content, etc. can be stored as well [5].

RFID chips are designed to store following data [5]: 1) Unique hard coded tag ID

2) Sequential event number

3) Clock time associated with the event (deposit, transfer, read, etc.) 4) GPS coordinates (lat/long) at each time event

5) vehicle/equipment serial number at each event 6) Unique lot number for each transfer event

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4.1.1 Equipment’s used 1) RFID Tag

The RFID Grain Tracking Tag is the device that travels with the grain being traced & tracked. It has the same size, shape and weight of the grain being tracked so that the tag remains with grain as it moves from the farm to processor. Fig. 10 shows an example of two available tags whose size is comparable to the size of the corn and soy grain [5]. The RFID Grain Tracking Tag is a passive RFID device, that is, it does not contain a battery and is powered solely by the electromagnetic field generated by the RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer. Fig. 11 shows the architecture of the tag [5].

The tag’s packaging is composed of material that is magnetic, durable, and non-toxic. A magnetic component is chosen so the tags may be extracted from the grain. Durable exterior is required so that the tag’s packaging does not wear appreciably after thousands of cycles of reuse. Non-toxic is needed so that what little wear that does occur as the tag bumps with its neighboring grain does not contaminate the grain.

Fig. 10 Examples of RFID tags Fig. 11 RFID grain tracking tag architecture

The antenna receives and stores electromagnetic energy from the RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer. After sufficient energy has been received and stored, the remainder of the circuit becomes active. These tags are less expensive, have long operational life, and are small enough to fit for application. These tags typically operate at frequencies of 128 KHz, 13.6 MHz, 915 MHz, or 2.45 GHz. Readers can communicate with passive tags from a distance ranging from a few centimeters to 10m [19]. Passive tags only give information about identification and tracking, for sensing applications it is necessary to use semi-passive or active tags. The Low frequency band is used mostly for implants in trees and animal identification systems, according to the ISO 11784 and ISO11785 standards. Ultrahigh Frequency frequencies typically offer higher range and can transfer data faster than low and high-frequencies. But they consume more power and are less likely to pass through materials. The use of other frequencies than 2.4 GHz avoids interference from water and the metal, and thus is typical for irrigation, greenhouse or cold chain applications. Low-Frequency tags use less power and are better able to penetrate non-metallic substances [20].

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2) RFID Reader

The RFID tag reader is an instrument that powers and communicates with a tag. The reader contains of a high frequency interface (consisting of a transmitter and a receiver), antenna, and a control unit. The HF interface generates power to activate and supply power to the tag (in passive tags only), sends data to the tag, and receives data from the tag. The reader also has one or more antennas that emit radio waves and receive signals transmitted back from the tag. The control unit is based upon a microprocessor to control communication with the tag. The control unit also codes and decodes the signal received from the tag. The performance of a reader is typically measured in terms of its range and rate the reader can identify, read, or write a tag [19]. A RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer is shown in Fig. 12 and the architecture is shown in Fig. 13 [5]. The computer receives all the data read by reader through its GPS electronics. When an RFID Grain Tracking Tag is detected (by obtaining a valid tag ID from a tag via the RF Receiver), the current timestamp, location data, and any other defined system data is written out to the tag via the RF Transmitter. The computer may also store all the records in all of the tags that it has read in a local database. When a network connection is available, these data may be transferred to a centralized or regional computer system for analysis [5].

Fig. 12 RFID reader/writer Fig. 13 RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer Architecture

The RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer is packaged in such a way that it is suitable for the expected environmental conditions at the locations where it is used. Power for the RFID Grain Tracking Reader/Writer is provided by standard house current (120VAC), also battery/solar panel combination can be used.

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3) Tag Dispenser

The RFID grain chip tag dispenser, the RFID tags and grain in free falling mode, similar to that which would be used in a combine grain bin are shown in Fig. 14 [5]. Conceptually, the grain tracking tags dispenser consists of tags tank, dispensing door, solitron, tags guide, and control electronics as shown in Fig. 14 [5]. The tags tank is filled with the RFID tags. The tags dispensing door will open when a single tag needs to be dispensed. It consists of a disk connected to a rod and its other end is introduced into a solitron. On application of positive current, the rod is pulled in, thus the dispensing door disk opens the hole in the bottom of the tags tank and a single tag is released into the tags guide pipe. When a negative current is applied to the solitron, it pushes the rod out, thus closing the dispensing hole. Tags guide pipe directs the released tag to an appropriate location into the grain stream [5].

Fig. 14 Grain tracking tags dispenser design

The tag dispenser can also be used to distribute tags into a stream of grain moving on the belt conveyor based grain handling system, into a stream of freely falling grain and into a stream of grain moved by an auger pipe. In the conveyor belt based grain handling systems, the dispenser is located above the belt and its tags guide pipe is directed towards the belt as shown in above Fig. 14. In the case of a freely falling grain, the dispenser is located next to the free fall volume and its tags guide pipe is directed towards the falling grain. In the case of an auger-based grain handling system, the dispenser tags guide pipe is directly inserted into the auger pipe or is positioned above the auger intake system [5].

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4) Tag Remover

The tag remover combined with the reader/writer is show in Fig. 15 [5]. This picture presents the approach which could be used for removing the tags from free falling grain or from an auger pipe or from belt conveyor or grain flowing out the bottom of a truck or rail hopper. Here, the magnetic grain tracking tags belt remover consists of a moving belt, permanent magnet located inside the belt, and a storage box for removed tags. These permanent magnet pulls up metal covered RFID tags. The collected tags are then moved by the tags removing belt to the tags storage box. Tags storage box should be positioned right at the edge of the permanent magnet, thus allowing the captured tags to be immediately released to the storage box. The dimensions of remover, speed of the tags removing belt, and the power of the permanent magnet are defined by the positioning situation [5].

Fig. 15 Grain tracking tags belt remover

Tags remover is used for removing of tags from a stream of grain moved by the conveyor belt based grain handling system and from a stream of freely falling grain. In the belt-based grain handling systems, the tags removing belt is positioned above the grain belt and the tags storage box is located next to the grain belt as shown in left side in Fig. 15 [5].

In the case of freely falling grain, the tags removing belt is situated along the path of the falling grain and the tags storage box is placed right below the tags removing belt. In both cases, the side of the tags removal belt close to the grain moves in the direction of the storage box, thus moving the pulled tags to the storage box. In the case of an auger-based grain handling system, the tags removing belt can be positioned just above the auger intake system [5].

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5) ICT System

The software to facilitate the tracking, storing data queries and movement/location visualization contains the following modules [5]:

• Stand-alone software for recording the data code components at initial deposit, final extraction and each “write” phase of the system.

• Visualization tools for static identification of the grain with characteristic location information (in-storage).

• Visualization software for backtracking grain movement, storage and origination

• Visualization software for identifying buffer/isolation regions (in field, storage or transport), transport routes for segregating high value or potentially contaminated grain.

Fig. 16 provides an example of visualization software implementation to trace back the grain from processor to storage facility back to an individual location in a field [5]. A connection of the unique RFID tag recording points can be shown on a satellite image or other geographic referenced maps. By highlighting particular locations within the represented lots (for example by linking the visualization with absolute coordinates) and highlighting the extracted coordinates in the display, individual points for a particular RFID tag can be shown on the display.

An individual tag record can be recalled showing the unique tag id number, event number, atomic clock time of harvest, GPS coordinates, the serial number of the combine and a unique lot number. Furthermore, a complete list of RFID tags in storage can be displayed as shown at the processor level in the upper right image in Fig. 16. The id numbers from the tags may then be linked to the database for displaying the compete history of the first to last stage events, time, location, etc. Such backtracking can effectively illustrate movement of the grain, when and where the grain was stored, and/or origination of the grain. Further, visualization software may be provided for identifying buffer/isolation regions, for example, in the field, storage, and/or transport routes for segregating high-value or potentially contaminated grain [5].

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Fig. 16 Trace back from processor to farm storage to within field location of individual chips

The software data structure will virtually eliminate the potential to manipulate the coding information. By coding the time, location and serial number of equipment redundancy will be increased , which allows checking for errors in terms of the time-line of chip read/write information, location/spatial error checks, reference to appropriate harvest, transport and storage equipment, and time-line reference to appropriate batch loads. The visualization software will enable time and spatial movement of grain and showing origination of any data outside the prescribed control parameters [5].

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4.2 RFID for perishable goods

Freshness is most vital aspects of fresh, frozen and chilled food, because customers have a strong tendency to select very fresh and hygienic food. Thus, the most vital issue in fresh food trade is the guarantee of freshness and the extension of shelf life to allow transport of products to distant markets. Here, Shelf life refers to life of product till it becomes unfit for consumption.

The temperature is one of the most significant parameters of quality control; freshness is totally a function of time and temperature. As the result, the temperature management is becoming a very important function for frozen and chilled food. And the visibility & traceability is particularly vital in cold chains of perishable goods where the control of changing the temperature in transportation is needed to keep the quality and quantity of product at the end of the supply chain on the essential level.

Depending on the temperature requirements four groups of product can be identified [21]:  Frozen is -25ºC for ice cream, -18ºC for other foods and food ingredients.

 Cold chill is 0ºC to 1ºC for fresh meat and poultry, most dairy and meat-based provisions, most vegetables and some fruit.

 Medium chill is 5ºC for some pastry-based products, butters, fats and cheeses.  Exotic chill is 10-15ºC for potatoes, eggs, exotic fruit and bananas.

Several applications for monitoring cold chain logistics by means of RFID have been applied. The majority are oriented to perishable food products. Here are the most commonly used applications. The use of microbial growth models combine with information from active RFID has been used. These models allow the prediction of microbiological safety and quality of foods, by monitoring the environment without recourse to further microbiological analysis [21]. Other models which measure the Vitamin C compared to temperature are also developed to measure the shelf life of the fruits [22]. Some models also calculate freshness based on the oxygen and carbon di oxide presence by using galvanic sensors has been developed [23]. By using these models immediate decisions on the quality and/or safety of fresh produce can be made based on the temperature profile of the supply chain. For this RFID with temperature indicator are used. A RFID with temperature indicators tag is a microchip combined with an antenna in a compact package; the packaging is structured to allow the RFID tag to be attached to an object to be tracked. It also incorporates memory, a battery and a clock to record sensor data in memory at constant intervals.The characteristic tag itself has ability to measure and record time-temperature information. This tags offer many advantages like [23]:

Ease in Data Collection

If thermometers fitted in warehouses and trucks are used for the management, regular temperature checks are required. In the case of management systems which use temperature loggers, each logger is physically connected to a PC and the data collection becomes a manual operation. But with RFID chips, it can be easily recorded and transferred by wireless devices.

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Accurate Temperature Measurement

Usually measurements are done by sampling individual packages on a per-warehouse basis. However, temperatures at the entrances and deep inside warehouses tend to differ largely because there is a wide variation in the temperature at the arrival due to the opening and closing of the doors. Therefore, the thermometers installed in the warehouses or trucks are sometimes incapable of recording the correct temperatures of the products. Here, RFID tags are present continuously on the product and thus give more accurate temperature time reading.

Low Temperature Management Costs

Generally the temperature measurements by loggers or thermometers are done by people manually. That requires hiring of people for job or outsourcing it. This on long term basis is costly. RFID tags can do measurements automatically thus these costs can be reduced.

The RFID temperature sensor tag block diagram is shown Fig. 17 and sensor tag in Fig. 18 [22]. An antenna 900 MHz and impedance matching circuit precede the analog front end. The power harvester block rectifies incoming RF into DC voltage to supply for the system. The demodulator follows the envelope of the RF carrier wave to extract Amplitude Shift Keyed. It is read by MSP430 microcontroller to receive downlink data from the reader. Uplink data is sent through modulator circuit.

Fig. 17 RFID Sensor Tag Block Diagram

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Supply chain of perishable goods is also similar to chain explained in section 2. Only difference is in method storing. Here, instead of bins cold storage houses are used. For tracing and tracking RFID technology, GPRS, wireless networks and Internet are combined. This contributes to effective risk management by easily enabling consistent temperature management throughout storage and transportation processes as shown in Fig. 19 [9].

Fig. 19 Supply chain network of perishable goods

This system consists of four key components [10]:

Identification: The RFID to collect the temperature data for identification the quality information of the chilled foods.

Transportation: GPS, wireless networks and transportation standards to location-based data retrieval and provide data communication.

Administration: Temperature managements, quality evaluations and quality assurance system are combined to establish the temperature traceability system for the frozen and chilled food quality control.

Communication: E-mail, EDI-software and XML technologies are used to provide important information with managers, drivers and customers in real time during the storage and transport.

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4.2.1 Shelf life model based on temperature

The vital decision problem during the storage and transportation is to evaluating the quality risk and shelf life of the frozen and chill food and early warning of the potential risk event. TTT (temperature, time, tolerance) theory refers to the relationship between storage temperature and storage life. It is also able to predict the effects of changing or fluctuating temperatures on quality shelf life [24].

Based on TTT theory, Arrhenius model has been adopted to evaluate shelf life of frozen and chilled food quality. The speed of chemical or enzymatic reactions, which lead to a decrease of quality, is calculated according to the law of Arrhenius for reaction kinetics The Arrhenius equation given below describes the dependence of the rate constant K of chemical reactions on the temperature T (in Kelvin) and activation energy E [25].

𝐾 = 𝐴𝑒−𝐸𝑎𝑅𝑇

Where K is equilibrium constant, R is the gas constant 1.986, and H is the heat of reaction. Ea is activation energy as representing the energy difference between the reactants and an activated species. The pre-exponential term A in the Arrhenius equation expresses the fraction of reactant molecules that possess enough kinetic energy to react, as governed by the Maxwell-Boltzmann law. This fraction can run from zero to nearly unity, depending on the magnitudes of Ea and the

temperature. If this fraction were unity, the Arrhenius law would reduce to k = A. In other words, A is the fraction of molecules that would react if either the activation energy were zero or if the kinetic energy of all molecules exceeded Ea [26].

Here, the Q10 factor is the indicator to assess the quality change during storage and transportation, which is a measure of the rate of change of a biological or chemical system as a result of increasing the temperature by 10°C, used to describe the relationship between temperature and reaction rate. Q10 is a unitless quantity, as it is the factor by which a rate changes, and is a useful way to express the temperature dependence of a process. The Q10 is

calculated as:

Q10= (Rate at Temperature (T+10) ºC) / (Rate at Temperature T ºC)

Q10= (Shelf life at Temperature (T+10) ºC) / (Shelf life at Temperature T ºC)

Where R is the rate and T is the temperature in Celsius degrees or Kelvins. For more details reader is referred to literature on Chemical Reactivity [26].

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Case Study

The research case study was performed in china for this technology by support of Beijing Fishery Company. The research scenario was selected as chilled tilapia fillet storage and transportation chain from Haikou to Beijing according the project requirement and taking into consideration the temperature variations which are possible large and have more influence on the quality of frozen and chilled fish. This case study is also relevant for the agricultural products like fruits and vegetables which should be preserved at low temperatures to maintain its quality. Here the system recorded the temperature every 10 minutes, transferred that info on time to remote server. The remote server processed that data and was sent to the manager and/or the driver as decision-making tool. Then message to customer was sent that his goods are in good condition. Six RFID chips were used on container for data recording as shown in Fig. 21 [24]:

Fig. 21 The temperature of six RFID embedded into the container

According to the above analysis methods, quality is expressed as remaining shelf-life, the time for the product to reach a spoilage level of 107 cfu/g at 0.8°C as shown in Fig..22 [24]. Negative values show products that have exceeded the limit of acceptability before reaching the consumer’s table. It can also be concluded that one of the major environmental factors that results in increased loss of quality for frozen and chilled foods is exposure to sharply increased temperature, especially when the door of reefer container or chilled truck open. Therefore, decrease of the door-open time is another way to keep the quality of the frozen or chilled foods [24].