RFID traces meat production

High-frequency RFID technology can meet the stringent requirements of the meat industry for rugged design and the fast read and write speeds required. Help Chinese slaughterhouses improve the tracking and traceability of meat products.

     In a meat processing plant, the RFID system demonstrated that the BL ident system with IP67 to IP69K protection levels can meet the industry's stringent requirements for robust design, as well as the fast read and write speeds required by the meat processing industry. The tags are embedded in the pork hooks so they are not damaged and can be read quickly and reliably.

The RFID tags are reliably protected in metal hooks against mechanical damage. Unlike LF tags, the hook does not have to be slotted

     As meat products have become an essential part of Chinese consumers' daily diet, quality assurance of meat product production has become an important topic of discussion in China. Therefore, the Chinese government decided to establish a domestic supervision and traceability system for meat product production. The system will supervise the entire process of pork from raising, slaughtering, processing, distribution to Stores, and can track the source of meat products, thereby establishing a food safety early warning mechanism.

     The information is aggregated to the municipal supervision platform so that regulatory agencies and the public can track and trace the entire process on the platform. This is particularly applicable to intermediate links such as slaughterhouses, where processes are numerous and difficult to monitor. The animals arrive alive and leave individually packaged. Compared with animals being raised or being packaged after slaughter, the hygiene standards in the slaughtering process are higher and the relevant requirements are more stringent. The slaughterhouse determines the reliability of traceable meat production and is always the weakest part of the entire traceability management chain.

     client needs

     To enable the tracking of pork at all process levels, each pig is equipped with an electronic ear tag containing relevant data. However, the location of the electronic ear tag on the pig's ear does not lend itself to collecting data during processing. This data is transferred to the slaughterhouse database when the pigs arrive at the slaughterhouse. Since each piece of pork hangs from the same hook throughout processing, it makes sense to install RFID tags on the hooks.

     Multiple read-write heads are installed next to the production line, and information about each piece of pork can be obtained through the read-write heads. The continuous correct identification of pork depends on the correct association of ear tag data with the corresponding tag on the hook. If quality problems are discovered during the initial inspection of the slaughterhouse, the relevant information will be recorded in the RFID tag on the hook; the piece of pork will also be transferred to a dedicated storage area to prevent further processing.

     Read/write heads read data from the tags to track production in real time. During the final packaging stage, the pork information is transferred from the label to the database and associated with the label on the package.

     Long sensing distance and fast reading and writing

     When selecting an RFID system, a key requirement is its ability to read and write 8 bytes of data on the fly (that is, at regular conveyor speeds). The integrator's project manager was also impressed by the simplicity and flexibility of the systems, which can be easily parameterized without the use of any functional modules. In addition to connecting 8 read-write heads, other analog and digital signals can also be connected to the BL67 gateway as an RFID interface. If additional control points are required, RFID Modules and standard I/O modules can be added. This minimizes the cost per node. RFID read-write heads with extended sensing distance can protect tags and read-write heads from mechanical damage.

     LF and UHF solutions are not applicable

     RFID solutions in other frequency bands such as LF and UHF are not suitable for this application. The frequency of LF RFID is very close to the frequency of the field motor, so reliable RFID operation is subject to considerable interference. In addition, the reading and writing distance of LF RFID is not enough. The distance between the RFID read-write head and the tag is only about 30mm, which cannot meet the requirements of every Library-borrowing-machine-touch-query-intelligent-terminal-all-in-one-machine.html target='_blank'>workstation. Therefore, customers require a larger read/write distance to prevent damage to the tag or read/write head.

     UHF RFID products are also not suitable because their read and write range is too large and the read and write heads will read multiple tags at the same time. This problem is particularly obvious in the case of high-speed reading. The maximum speed of the slaughtering line is 600 heads/hour, so it is impossible to determine which hook is passing through the workstation. We have developed RFID tags that can be embedded in the metal of pork hooks, thus providing reliable protection and preventing damage. The longer read range allows the RFID read/write head to be installed next to the conveyor chain in a position where it can be mechanically protected. The protection level of the read-write head can reach IP69K, and the protection level of the label can reach IP68. Therefore, they are moisture and water resistant and are also suitable for high-pressure cleaning.

     RFID tags can store 146 bytes of data. Therefore, all necessary information can be saved in tags, which increases the security of the database in the event of an error. RFID HF systems can fully detect tags so that production is not slowed down by the use of RFID.