Sensing Trouble: Temperature plays role in traceability, food safety

A device as small as a sugar packet can help fresh-cut produce businesses avoid big trouble.

Produce companies are using these devices, as part of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, to monitor the temperature of produce at every step along the supply chain. The information can help companies determine the order of product shipment, monitor the condition of the produce and as part of traceability and GMP systems.

Special temperature recorders, often tags or thin plastic sensors, are strategically placed to read and report time and temperature. Companies use the information to identify the relative remaining shelf life of a product and the potential for future food safety problems caused by temperature excesses — usually too much heat.

Getting accurate information about what happens at each step from harvest to purchase is vital, say representatives of temperature monitoring companies.

“In general, food, even if properly cleaned and packaged, may have some minor trace of bacteria. The trick is that it doesn’t grow, and high temperatures cause that problem,” said Kevin Payne, senior director of marketing for Intelleflex. “So, if you’re monitoring the temperature of produce all the way through and it’s been held at the temperature you’ve been aiming for entirely in transit, then your concerns about potential food safety diminish. But if you can see from the temperature record that it spent eight hours at 80 degrees, you probably want to pull that product and check it for safety.”

The systems can also be used in tandem with traceability technology to precisely identify and perhaps remove any product suspected of being the source of a food safety issue.

“Traceability companies have traceability codes. Customers can match the serial number of our individual labels with the trace code if they want in their back end systems and create that bridge of traceability with environmental monitoring,” said Amy Childress, marketing director for PakSense.

For the PakSense monitoring system, flat is where it’s at, with an adhesive label the size of a sugar packet. The labels can record time and temperature of products in distribution and, in some cases, in storage, Childress said.

PakSense has three different types of labels. The Ultra Contact label is pre-programmed with the desired temperature ranges for the product being monitored.

“If those temperatures are breached, a warning light on the label will flash to give quick visual indication that there has been a temperature abuse issue,” Childress said.  “When they get to their destination point, you can connect our reader to these labels and download graphs, summaries and listings of time and temperature information on Excel format.”

The Ultra Wireless uses the same label and allows download of information from labels using a wireless handheld device. The Express PDF label comes with a USB connector port that is plugged into a computer to create a PDF of time and temperature data, eliminating the need for readers and software, Childress said.

The Intelleflex tags, including the TMT 8500 temperature monitoring tag, allow for real-time monitoring and reporting of temperature data at any point in the supply chain, and not only when the product reaches its final destination, Payne said.

Other Intelleflex tags include the STT-8000 general-purpose RFID tag, which can deliver reliable readings at 100 meters in an environment where extreme temperatures are not involved, and a line of RFID readers.

These tools present a history of the product’s movement, including its condition at each waypoint, on a tag that has been with the product the entire time.

“As it’s delivered, you get a complete traceability record directly on the tag,” Payne said. “That information on the tag can be uploaded into a cloud-based database. Anybody you want to share the information with can instantly have a traceability record online in the cloud.”

Companies are normally using two or three labels or tags per truckload at the pallet level, Childress said, placing sensors in the front, middle and rear of the truck. High-value customers, such as pharmaceutical companies, are using one sensor per carton.

“Because our labels are so small and flat, you can do so many things with them,” Childress said. “One customer attached a label to the claw of a lobster with a rubber band because they were interested in mortality rates and what was going on during airplane flights.”

By Lee Dean, editorial director
 



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