Food waste is a massive problem. Every year in the UK alone 18 million tonnes of food end up in landfill, Around 1/3 from producers/ supply chain, 1/3 from retail and 1/3 from households. Not only is this an environmental and ethical issue, but for the food industry itself, this sees huge amounts of capital literally wasting away.Food waste can be effectively reduced using rfid technology.

RFID can read hundreds of tags simultaneously regardless of angle, as well as through the most packaging materials. For instance, an RFID reader can be placed at the entrance of a warehouse to be easily monitored inventory. Eventually, it can speed up the logistics processing of goods. RFID tags can also integrate multiple types of sensors that can provide identification and sensing capabilities in a wireless, contactless and non-visual way. These sensible RFID tags could detect changes in food properties, such as pH, conductivity, dielectric constant, humidity, temperature, gas, etc, and the recorded information be sent to the central control system shows which aspects of RFID technology can promote the intelligence of food packaging.

So, the food industry has several challenges that RFID has been proven to solve and the technology has gotten to a point where it is viable among the much more diverse and complicated range of products. Fresh products like meat and fish (and potentially some fruit and veg) have both a high enough price point and a limited shelf life meaning managing them with RFID could prove hugely beneficial. The food industry is a new frontier for RFID, and time will tell just how well it does in the market.