Battery-free RFID bio-sensor
A Battery-free RFID bio-sensor able to track food freshness.
A sensor-enabled RFID system was developed to monitor the freshness of food during transportation and storages.
Generally, RFID tags are used to track food products during distribution, but coupling the tags with a bio-layer sensor made the system more intelligent, and now it is capable of providing historical information about the food quality status and/or environmental conditions at each step of distribution and storage.
The RFID system developed within the GLOPACK project consists of RFID labels and a UHF/NFC reader.
The RFID labels are small and flexible and they are composed of an RFID chip and a small antenna device in aluminium. These components are coated with a bio-layer which is sensitive to gas/volatiles changes in the headspace of the packaging.
The RFID label is placed inside the packaging, the bio-layer reacts to the variation of gas/volatiles in the headspace and the antenna sends the corresponding signal to the reader.
Two different readers were tested: conventional RFID UHF reader (already used in the logistic chain) and an NFC reader that communicate with the consumer smartphone through an application.
The smartphone application, developed by TAGEOS (GLOPACK partner) and running on an Android device, permits to have in few seconds information about the food with a visual signal: green point = OK, red point = do not eat anymore
Sensor-enabled RFID tags can help food manufacturers and distributors to optimize their supply chain by minimizing the amount of food that is spoiled before it reaches the consumer. Consumers can also check the status of their food in their fridge, therefore the system will contribute to the reduction of avoidable food waste
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