Functionality for integration of food safety information with EPC tagged items

Abstract

The aim of the eTrace project within SAFEFOOOERA is to specify, develop and evaluate an electronic traceability system where different information sources related to food safety and suitable enterprise management systems are integrated. This report is part of work package 4 in eTrace with the focus on integration of food safety information into an electronic traceability system. Ensuring food safety is an important objective of traceability systems. Under current industry practices. Information related to the food product is available in several stand-alone applications, such as HACCP systems, laboratory analysis, logistics systems, production management systems, etc. We present an information model based on the EPCIS standard that integrates food safety and traceability information and links it to the related traceable units. This information model was tested in an Icelandic Fish supply chain pilot where RFID tags were used to uniquely label the product and read using scanners as it moved through the supply chain. Temperature recorded using RFID based sensors was used as one of food safety and quality parameters that was linked to the tagged items. This functionality is of great importance to the food industry where information is often lost or information access is time consuming because of a lack of standardized communication between different systems.