Video: Revolutionizing Food Distribution with RAIN RFID
Industry experts explore how RAIN RFID empowers food and beverage supply chain managers to improve operations within their own organizations.
RAIN RFID is transforming how fresh, prepared, and packaged food is tracked as it moves through the supply and distribution chains, creating opportunities for enhanced safety, less food waste, and even reduced carbon emissions.
Watch this video to learn more.
Video transcript:
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Hello, everyone, and welcome. Thank you for joining today's webinar. My name is Ashley Burkle, and I'm excited for our discussion today focused on revolutionizing food distribution with RAIN RFID.
Today, we'll be discussing the global concern for food safety, the impact of food loss and waste in the supply chain, and the tools – including RAIN RFID – to combat the challenges.
We're going to kick off this morning with a short presentation to help set the stage and then dive into a panel discussion.
But before we get started, I do want to let everyone know this is being recorded and will be sent to all registrants.
And if you do have any questions throughout today's webinar, please add it to the chat and we're going to leave time at the end to answer those questions.
So next, it's my pleasure to introduce our wonderful panelists that will be joining me today. Megan Brewster, vice president of advanced technology at Impinj, Thomas Burke, research associate at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and Amber Engebretsen, solution consultant at PLM TrustLink.
So first, we do want to get started with a brief introduction to today's topic by Megan Brewster. So, Megan, please take it away.
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: Thank you, Ashley.
The use of RAIN RFID by food distributors is growing rapidly, and much of that growth has been driven by food safety regulations around the world.
Food safety regulations govern how food is handled at every point in the supply chain, and these regulations are often complex.
We've seen different countries have different sets of food safety standards and impact processes for food products that are imported and exported. But in general, the regulations all support a similar goal, and that is to reduce the risk of contamination and foodborne illnesses and to protect the health of customers and workers.
One of the most comprehensive lists of countries that have the highest food safety standards comes from the Economist Impact Food Safety Global Food Security Index, the GFSI, and they note the importance of collaboration between suppliers, distributors, food service providers, and retailers altogether in order to manage that risk.
In my role at Impinj as vice president of advanced technology, my team and I research emerging markets, their unique use cases, and how RAIN RFID technology might help.
And in the food industry, we found that the RAIN RFID technology can help distributors by enabling detailed tracking of food products from origin to point of sale, allowing for rapid identification and removal of contaminated or expired items.
This ensures consumer safety and facilitates compliance with these food safety standards and regulations by providing a complete traceability of those food products.
Now, food recalls can be extremely expensive, and when it is determined that a food has been contaminated, companies with better traceability have the best opportunity to reduce the cost and impact of these recalls. So let's do a quick quiz.
How much do you think an average food recall costs?
And I want you to keep in mind, when manufacturers discover that their products contain defects or are not compliant with these safety standards, those manufacturers are responsible for notifying the consumers, removing all affected items from the shelves, warehouses, storerooms, and customers' homes.
And the answer is: $10 million per product.
Per product.
What is incredible is that according to FDA.gov recall website, as of the end of September this year, there were already more than 1,087 recalled food and beverage products across 339 events.
Now that's just food and beverage. That doesn't include medical, drug, vet, and so on, and that's so far just this year. As you can tell, we still have a couple more months before the end of the year. So, overall, this equates to over $10 billion in recall costs and counting.
In addition to the monetary loss from recalls, there can also be the long term impact on consumer and investor trust.
Recalls are an example of the obvious disruption to the food supply chain.
Another top concern of food distributors is food loss and waste, which happens at various points in the supply chain.
Based on a recent supply chain study conducted by Impinj, this included a subset of 250 enterprises in the food and beverage industry.
Our team found that 23% of respondents noted that food loss is most likely to occur during transit, and another 22% experience loss primarily in the warehouse.
This shows that companies involved in the distribution and storage of food and beverage must measure, evaluate, and improve operational processes to reduce that food waste.
And beyond economic reasons, leaders in the food and beverage industries are also keenly aware of the environmental and social impacts of food loss. According to the World Wildlife Fund report of 2023, food waste contributes to somewhere between eight to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
And because one in 10 people worldwide face chronic hunger, there is a tremendous amount of pressure on food distributors to reduce that food loss and identify ways to donate food before it expires.
Impinj and PLM understand the primary challenges that stakeholders face across the food industry in complying with regulations and meeting the quality standards of retailers and consumers, and we found there is no “one size fits all” solution.
Global supply chains vary in complexity.
They range from local farm-to-table providers who need to consider transportation impacts on their products to ensure product freshness to a nearby restaurant, all the way over to large exporters of food products where volume and speed of logistics around the globe is essential. And when you look at the global industry, we're talking about trillions of food items that are transported each year.
In terms of visibility, there can be various transition points in a supply chain and times when you can lose visibility to items in transit or even in a warehouse.
And when freshness matters, it's important to understand expiration information in order to maintain that food quality, that freshness quality, and making sure that you have enough inventory to meet your consumer demand.
So there's often not a single tracking solution in place and agreement on which to deploy at which stage in the product lifecycle. Rather, each stakeholder must evaluate what is cost effective to deploy and maintain.
And on the bright side, RAIN RFID deployments across the food supply chain have grown, and these are proof points that the return on investment of these RAIN systems have been compelling.
RAIN RFID is a passive wireless system that connects billions of items to the internet and has been proven to increase operational efficiency, ensure safety, and improve sustainability in the food industry.
So let's tackle those one at a time. Related to efficiency, item visibility enabled by RAIN RFID can help enterprises prevent food shortages, stock outs, and reduce labor costs. In a sponsored article by Avery Dennison in Grocery Dive, my friend Julie Vargas, global director of RFID market development, noted that based on their pilot testing, they believe RFID adoption can help grocers cut food waste by as much as 20% and cut labor costs by as much as 50%.
Item level data is helpful across the supply chain. This data about every individual item can help farmers track conditions, harvest dates, moisture conditions.
Item level data enables distributors to oversee temperature using specialized tags with sensors to help distributors monitor cold storage.
And this item-level data also helps retailers verify the health and history of products delivered to supermarkets in order to ensure consumer safety.
Studies have shown that by enabling item level traceability with RFID and blockchain, the time frame to respond to a recall can be significantly shortened. We're talking about from days and weeks to a matter of seconds.
And lastly, my colleagues at the University of Parma conducted a pilot that monitored 30,000 cases of RAIN RFID-tagged perishable goods. And what they found is that RAIN RFID enabled the optimization of safety stock levels, and that resulted in an extension of the shelf life of perishable goods significantly from 34 days to 40 days.
What this means is that there are few fewer expired goods going into the trash.
This is compelling evidence of how RAIN RFID helps the food industry with its unique challenges.
I'm now going to hand it back to Ashley and ask Thomas and Amber to join us to further discuss the impact and benefits of RAIN RFID in food distribution.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Oh, thank you, Megan.
Wow. It's incredible to think how expensive and impactful food recall is, not only in dollars, but also in time and trust.
So thank you for that presentation.
I want to dive into some questions, to get your input. So I'll start with Amber.
So hi, Amber. Megan touched on a few ways that RAIN RFID benefits the food supply chain, but can you elaborate on how RAIN RFID is already being used by major food companies today?
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: Sure. RAIN RFID is being adopted at different rates by major food companies for a multitude of reasons as they start to build cost impacts and are trying to find operational efficiencies.
And then there's also that consumer and regulatory pressure. But when it all comes down to it, RAIN RFID provides visibility. And so there are two pillars of visibility that I'll highlight that food companies are already using today.
The first is visibility for inventory management, and the second is visibility for food safety incidents.
So food companies use RAIN RFID to monitor inventory levels in real time, allowing for better stock control, reducing waste, and minimizing the risk of running out of essential items.
RFID tags on food items allow for automatic data collection as items move through each node of the supply chain, reducing the need for manual scanning of barcodes, which is key. This automation enhances the accuracy and efficiency of inventory counts and location tracking.
And at PLM TrustLink, we found these operational efficiencies and labor savings are significant for food companies and distributors.
And then second, bringing RFID provides end-to-end visibility across the food supply chain, helping food companies track products from farm to store, and down to the item level, which is another key piece. So having precise traceability in the event of a food safety incident, RAIN RFID can quickly identify and isolate affected products.
And with that kind of efficient recall execution, companies can identify the exact locations of affected batches or lot codes and surgically remove items from the shelves with speed and accuracy.
So this reduces the scope and cost of recalls, limiting the financial and reputational damage for food companies.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Wow. That's great. I like “surgical” removal of items.
So, Thomas, food loss and waste is a major issue in our supply chains today.
What are the key points in the food distribution chain where loss and waste occurs?
How can RAIN RFID help? And if you want to take just a minute to help us understand sort of the difference between loss and waste as it’s talked about within the food supply chains.
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: Yeah. Sure. Thank you, Ashley.
Megan really highlighted where we see waste and loss in distribution components of the supply chain. And broadly, this concept is often really a result of this kind of mismatch between supply and demand. And this is why waste and loss are talked about really in the same sentence.
Loss really occurring pre-consumer and waste really occurring after purchasing, at the point of use.
And loss and waste can vary widely between commodities.
But even though there are specific supply chain junctures where this occurs more frequently, this is kind of like a collective responsibility because of this mismatch of information and this is where data carriers, particularly RFID, can really allow that transparency for that dialogue of the nuanced changes to food market structures. And this can lead us to all sorts of better decision making that enable us to modify the behaviors that lead to loss in the supply chain and also waste that occurs on the consumer side.
Some specific actions are that you can more thoroughly have better throughput in warehousing and also ensure that specific lots are not being overlooked. And you also can have better insight into specific distribution channels or distribution routes and see where you're actually seeing higher degrees of quality losses, et cetera.
And, really, lastly, this digitization of supply chain systems can give us better insight into holistically how does the system evolve over time, and how does it respond to changes in consumer demand.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Oh, interesting.
Okay. Thank you.
I do know that there are regional and global pushes to develop different regulations to help with our food supply chains, one of them being FSMA.
So, Megan, how does RAIN RFID technology contribute to FSMA compliance and other regulatory requirements?
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: Thanks, Ashley. I'm sure everyone on the call knows, but just in case, FSMA is the US Food and Drug Administration's regulation: the Food Safety Modernization Act, which we refer to as FSMA.
And in the event of a recall, FSMA is requiring impacted businesses to provide details on those recalled items within 24 hours.
And RAIN RFID enables this because it provides that data that's essential for recalls such as batch and lot information.
And because RAIN provides that automatic identification and digitization, these responses are faster than other methods, more traditional methods, as I highlighted in the earlier presentation.
And, critically, it's scalable across multiple facilities.
So if you have these food items across different stores, for example, the RAIN RFID system will enable a full database of this item-level data with these critical data elements so that you can, as quickly and efficiently as possible, comply with these recalls.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. I mean, obviously, being able to do that quickly and efficiently is so important for safety reasons and other reasons. Thank you, Megan.
Turning back to Thomas. So what are the challenges in standardizing food tracking data and processes throughout the food life cycle?
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: Yeah. For sure. And if anybody knows me, they know me as a huge standards nerd, so I think this is my favorite question.
Standards are core to why food supply chain systems can function at the speeds that they do. But despite their success, they still need further alignment to ensure this robust digital traceability, particularly on production-specific information that's relevant for food safety, quality, and environmental externalities.
And the thing is, is that technology is improving and evolving at a really rapid clip, and there are various technologies that, on their own and in concert, can work really well to address these types of both business demands and societal demands. But as these technologies are evolving, we need to have standards and collective usage of these technologies so that there can be coordinated acts across supply chains. And so how do we really take advantage of the technologies as fast as possible, but also drawing upon what has been really classically successful in supply chain standardizations, particularly for data visibility? And, I would say also this is internal to supply chain challenges too because just because standards exist doesn't necessarily mean that they're completely adhered to.
And the negotiation of that adherence is internal between supply chain food safety teams and also between food companies and their software vendor providers.
And also with their supply chain partners too, in ensuring integrations and a commitment to interoperability of their data structures. So all of these things work in concert with the complexities of running a food business. So, I think it's always of value to have commitment amongst all interested parties in food supply chain systems. My conclusion really being that we need to be future-oriented in the way that we can deploy technology at the speed that it's developed.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. Right. Sometimes technology goes a little bit faster than the people we hope use it. And we talked a little bit about the life cycle of food. And so Amber, how can we encourage the adoption of RAIN RFID technology among food producers at the source, so...growers and ranchers and the like?
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: Sure. So I firmly believe that RAIN RFID could be a truly meaningful seismic change across the food industry, and I think that the growers and ranchers are the key to that change.
And the same way Walmart is leading the charge in retail RFID, I think we need big brand names and producers to get the party started, so to speak; to lead the way for everyone else.
So to encourage the adoption of RAIN RFID technology among food producers at the source, I think as a food industry community, we all should be encouraging the use of RAIN RFID.
And I'll highlight three strategies to do that. So number one, sharing the success stories and the case studies, especially peer adoption, just like what Megan shared earlier in her presentation, sharing real world examples where other growers and ranchers have successfully implemented RAIN RFID and highlighting the positive impact on their operations and, very important, their profitability, because money talks.
Peer success stories can create confidence and encourage that buy in.
And, you know, when it comes to food safety, I've always lived by this rule that there should be no competition between competitors. Food safety is for everyone.
So there should be a collaborative ecosystem to foster partnerships between growers, ranchers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to prioritize data sharing and transparency in the name of food safety.
And by positioning RAIN RFID as a tool that strengthens those relationships, I think that we can motivate food producers to see the broader industry benefits because it really does start with them.
And then second, I would say it's part of sharing the success story, but really demonstrating the ROI and the efficiency gains. So RAIN RFID can streamline operations by improving inventory management, reducing manual labor, and enhancing traceability. We've talked about all three of those, but all of those lead to faster processing times, fewer errors, and more money to the bottom line.
And then, third, there's easy access to training and educational resources online, but there's also a need for ongoing support to minimize the learning curve and ensure smooth implementation like a knowledgeable solution partner who can help simplify the technology for those that are new to it.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. Absolutely. Right? Simplifying is always great. And you mentioned, getting the party started.
And so I think we probably have a lot of audience members today who are curious: how would they get started? What does this look like? And so, Megan, when we talk about this process, oftentimes we start with tagging and adding a RAIN RFID-enabled tag to a food item as an obvious required first step.
What are some of the unique tagging challenges in the food industry, and how are those being addressed?
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: Choosing the right tag and the right tag chip is essential, for any application, food industry or otherwise. But when we look at the unique challenges in the food industry, this helps us choose the most appropriate tag and tag chip. So let's start with the tag chip.
Because the food industry is a high-volume, low-margin industry, they need systems that work and work very well.
So they need systems where you can ensure that you're reading the right tag at the right time, and that's where the Impinj M800 series RAIN RFID tag chip comes in. So for example, this next-generation tag chip series, the M800 series, has features that improve tag readability to allow reliable reading of small tags at high volume and speed. And small tags is important for the food industry when you consider the types of items that are being tagged. They come in a variety of sizes, but many of these food items are small.
Through that high-volume and high-speed reading, this supports efficient global operations.
So now you've got the right tag chip, and now our partners take those tag chips and build RAIN tags and labels that you can use to attach to your packages.
Now in the food industry, there are some specialty items that require consideration in terms of the right tag or label that you choose.
So let's talk through some of those unique items. The first is what we refer to as lossy dielectrics.
That's a bit of a mouthful, but basically what it means is that perishable food items tend to have a high water content. And it's that water content that can actually absorb the RF signal, which can degrade system performance. So making sure that you have tags that can handle that water content from the lossy dielectric that is the perishable food item – or beverages, for example – is essential.
There are also many items that have metal packaging. So think about all of the canned food items. In this case, the metal can reflect the RF signal, which can have unintended consequences to system performance. So, again, choosing the right tag for these specific items is really important.
And the third item are food items that are intended to be microwaved in their packaging.
So this can be an issue with the RAIN RFID tag because it has a metal antenna. You know what happens if you put metal in your microwave. So, again, choosing the right tag depending on these specialty items that are unique in the food industry is really essential. But once you have that right combination of the right tag chip and the right tag, that is the strong foundation for your RAIN RFID system.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. It's so interesting. It sounds like the RAIN RFID tagging industry has really worked hard on innovations and has helped overcome some of the obstacles we would have thought about, as you mentioned, with tagging certain food items.
So, Amber, why isn't the adoption of RAIN RFID and other track-and-trace technology in food distribution happening faster? What are the main obstacles you're seeing in the market?
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: Yeah. I'm so glad Megan was talking about the technical aspect because I think that there are a lot of old misconceptions about how RFID works, what it can and can't do with some materials. And then there's also the cost of entry, misconceptions about tag prices, which are very different now than they were, even a few years ago, much less 10 or 20 years ago.
So in the food industry, it is progressing slower than expected, especially considering in retail it's a common use.
So I think the main obstacles are the concerns about the cost, not just the tag price, but the initial investment in infrastructure like readers and software systems.
So companies, particularly smaller food producers and distributors, struggle with the up-front capital expenses, making them hesitant to adopt the technology.
But the long-term ROI may not be immediately apparent, but it is there. And that can sometimes deter faster implementation.
The next obstacle would be technical complexity.
So integrating RAIN RFID into existing supply chain systems often requires upgrades to legacy systems and ensuring compatibility across multiple stakeholders in the supply chain at each node.
So many companies lack the technical expertise or resources to manage those integrations smoothly.
This is where I would recommend a gap analysis with a solution partner to find out what needs to be done.
And lastly, the regulatory uncertainty, like Megan mentioned, FSMA 204 coming down the pipeline.
Many companies are still waiting for clear guidance on how track-and-trace technologies will be enforced, so it's kind of a “wait and see” game. But, unfortunately, that's getting us behind in compliance for 2026. So this uncertainty can lead to delays in adoption until the regulatory landscape becomes more defined. And, again, you know, we have more people getting the party started, like, showing the way, especially large producers, growers, and ranchers, showing how it can be done for a smaller source.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Thank you, Amber. And, you know, I think we've talked a bit again about technology challenges. We've talked a bit about the regulatory compliance.
But a question I think is so important, and I want to ask you, Thomas:
How can revolutionizing food distribution help address major societal challenges like food scarcity, like carbon emissions, and others?
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: You know, I think revolutionizing food distribution isn't the only thing that will need to happen, but it certainly will, being empowered by technologies like RAIN RFID, be part of the solution. And one of the things that we should really think about is that the food system is undergoing multiple challenges and transitions simultaneously.
You have contributions of the food system to climate change or ecosystem degradation. You have new and emerging food safety concerns. The contribution of the food system to people's chronic health is a severe impact to people's morbidity and mortality.
And there are even contributions to zoonotic disease, as we've seen, with the rise of avian influenza.
And, to pair with these transitions and challenges, you have people's changing perceptions and what their dietary intake should be.
And you also even have pharmaceutical interventions such as the usage of Ozempic and other similar drugs. So the thing is, is that many of the conventional solutions to some of these challenges can actually compete with one another. So when you're concerned about food safety, the mantra that everybody thinks about is, “When in doubt, throw it out.”
But also, when you want to reduce and mitigate food waste and loss, “When in doubt, throw it out” contributes to it. So how do we reduce that doubt is, I think, what is our question. And this is where better supply chain visibility empowered through better data carriers that don't require line of sight can really expand the possibilities of what we know about the food system. And once you know about the production relevant information and when and where a product is as it goes through the supply chain, you also then can start really layering what is happening in the food system on other data that has these layers of space and time on them.
And then we can start really evaluating the food system in a greater way. And going away from doing broad-based lifecycle analysis or doing some rudimentary accounting measures, like environmental accounting measures, actually looking at transactional information and summarizing it saying, this is really what happens.
Why are we seeing this type of waste and loss? Or why are we seeing this amount of carbon emissions from this behavior? And then, with that information, we can drive forward to better practices. We can inform better standards.
Like how should we do carbon accounting? I mean, we need to actually have data types that are relevant to business that can be captured robustly and then be actionated upon so that we can have the outcomes that we're looking for. And so you know the future like many solutions to working through these complex transitions and challenges are empowered through information and what better way to gather information than through better automated data capture.
And this is why I love data carriers so much is that they can be this river of information that we can tap into and empower change.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Absolutely. So important. And as you pointed out, there can be conflicts in how to solve for these challenges, and working together is such an important aspect of that.
I do want to remind our audience, please feel free to use the chat to put in any questions you have. We're actually going to start answering some of those questions. So I'll throw out some of these questions, and hopefully, Amber, Thomas, Megan, please feel free to jump in and answer any of these questions from our audience.
The first one is around the advantages of RAIN RFID over traditional tracking methods like barcoding.
So, obviously, we've talked about track and trace. We've talked specifically about RAIN RFID as one of those tools.
Why is RAIN RFID an important tool? And possibly, how do you know as a food company if that is the right tool for you?
I don't know...Megan or Amber...if you want to dive into that one?
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: I could take this one. I have personally been a part of a traceability program that went from almost no information to implementing GS1-128 barcodes, and then to RFID tagging.
And I can tell you that at each level, at each year after implementation, the process of conducting a surgical removal of affected items within the supply chain was phenomenal.
So going from paper and pen to barcodes and then from barcodes to RFID...really phenomenal amount of information that you're able to pull. And instead of disposing of a month's worth of food that was produced that was seeded, watered, carefully grown, harvested, packaged, and on its way to where it needs to be...all of that beautiful food...if you are able to identify down to a couple of pallets instead of throwing away, like I said, a month's worth of product is incredible, not only from a sustainability perspective, but then also from a financial and social responsibility (perspective). Because what we're trying to do at the end of the day is to make sure that we're keeping the public safe. And that kind of progression from a pen and paper to barcode to RAIN RFID is really incredible.
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: And I'll add to that. Amber's totally right. To see that progression and data carriers from, you know, lowest complexity, handwritten notes up to barcodes towards RAIN RFID, the possibilities expand significantly.
Today, obviously, we're focused on food safety, and that is an essential and unique use case in the food industry. What we have seen in other industries that are deploying RAIN RFID is that they'll start with a specific use case, and then they'll find, “Hey, now that everything's tagged, there are numerous other use cases that I can solve with this technology.”
And so we've seen RAIN RFID used, you know, it'll start in stores for inventory management. But once everything's tagged, especially if it's tagged at the source way up at the beginning of the supply chain, you can start using that for shipment verification and inbound, outbound checking packages.
So the use cases expand significantly. You can really, as one of the brands using RAIN RFID has said, “You can really sweat that asset,” where RAIN RFID is your asset, and you can use it in so many different ways across your supply chain and across your business.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Absolutely. I like to say RAIN RFID is the gift that keeps on giving, because as you pointed out, once an item is tagged, it can be read as many times as you want, as many times in the supply chain or at any point in the supply chain. So, that's fantastic.
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: And can I add one more point to both Amber and Megan's wonderful points?
The thing I think that's really empowering too about RFID in its implementation as a technology is that, you know, as you see this progression of data carriers, you are better able to fit that technology within each of the food handler’ day-to-day work. Right? The better a technology is, like, where it actually fits within, like, what is this person's core motivation to get their job done. And because you don't need that line of sight like you do with a barcode, you can empower data approaches like serialization, but you also can embed the way that you read that product into the day-to-day operations.
So not only do you see this going from having to scan each individual case to being able to potentially scan an entire pallet with a sled, but also having mobile arrays to pick up an identity in the process of using a product in a restaurant can really give you insights that you would not normally have. And then from the end user's point of view, it's nothing really. Right?
Like, they are aware of what's happening maybe...there's training that comes into play...but then it becomes part of their day-to-day process of working with food. And I think that's what can be really wonderful about RFID.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. You touched on a couple of things I actually want to ask questions about. One is you mentioned case and pallet, and I think we've been talking a lot about tagging and tracing individual items, which is very important. But I think we've also seen, in the market, starting off with possibly tagging and identifying pallets or case level, instead of the individual item. Can we talk a little bit about how using case-level or pallet-level is also helpful within supply chain, whether it's a grocery distributor or a quick-serve restaurant or other food distributors?
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: Sure. I can start.
So for a restaurant that is receiving a delivery, let's say it's 100 cases and there are 50 different items that are in those hundred cases, that is what we would deem as going down to the item level. However, if you were to back that up through the supply chain, being able to identify at even the pallet level for a distributor would be key.
When you're in a distribution center you're seeing the racks that are four stories high and you're trying to pull down a specific pallet. So that master load number can be RFID. So it contains all of the items that are in that one pallet.
And that is very important not only for being able to pull for food safety reasons, but also for being able to do inventory, when you do have pallets that are stacked up to four stories high in a building.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Wow. Yeah. Absolutely. Four stories high -- that's a lot to track and trace in a distribution facility.
Thomas, you had mentioned line of sight, and it's something in RAIN RFID we talk about quite a bit -- not needing to have line of sight like with the barcode when you tag something with RAIN RFID.
And so one of the use cases that we're seeing in retail specifically is using RAIN RFID as a method of checkout. So, whether it's self-checkout or checkout through an associate, we're seeing more and more retailers, specifically on the apparel side, but going into the food side...looking at how can we speed up and actually make a frictionless checkout with RAIN RFID.
Can that relate to also this food safety concern? I'm thinking about: Is there a way to use the RAIN RFID tag to say, “Oh, this this item is actually expired.”
Should it not be going through the point-of-sale checkout, or, wow, this item was actually just put on a recall and we didn't get to surgically remove it or we didn't pull it off the shelf. Can you see that as an opportunity for how RAIN RFID can be used in that last part of the food supply chain at the point of sale?
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: Yeah. Thanks, Ashley.
Yeah. And I think a lot of my friends find me a bit insufferable whenever I go to an apparel retailer and get super excited about the self-checkout machine, and I'm explaining to them why these tags are serialized and why they know it's this item and how this helps with loss prevention, et cetera.
And, I mean, the reason why you see all this innovation in textiles or in apparel is that it's the perfect product to use, with RFID tags. Because I mean, the reason why we're seeing it now and being able to be applied in food is that the antenna technologies and what we've developed are able to adapt around or to mitigate some of the challenges that we see in the water content, metal content, et cetera, and can therefore enable the line of sight that we do get with apparel.
But I think the question regarding its use in point of sale and its utility for detecting whether a product has been recalled or something is that I think it's a question of standards. Right? There has to be unification around using this approach for automatic capture and we are going to have this method for being able to have it be processed through a diversity of POS machines. So I think there's also this element too of: What are retailers looking to make their consumer experience be when they are checking out at the grocery store?
So there's other things too that further that conversation on the consumer side. Because as I said, the seamlessness of self-checkout in an apparel location really takes out this frustration that they feel when they're like, “Oh, something's not going quite right. It's not weighing quite right, et cetera.” Because the power of being able to capture the identity at the point of sale sidesteps some of these checking measures that you would get with a barcode-based system.
So, but I think that still, depending on the way that you put information on the tag, whether you choose to do serialization and, like, a database lookup to see what the lot code is or whether that's embedded directly on the tag, these are questions that I think would have to be resolved by food retailers and food service providers so that they are using a common approach for encoding the information that you would utilize, at point of sale for some of this information. But, definitely, I mean, more information that's available at point-of-sale machines can have this power.
And I think this is actually even an activity that the US FDA is exploring further. So I think if retailers are interested in this and the power that technology can have, this is really an opportunity for them to participate in that standardization process so that they can have both improved consumer experience but also protect the public's health.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. And that's an important point that as the technology becomes more prevalent in your industry, making sure that you participate in these standards and regulations as they're being brought to market, to ensure that you as a company are happy and have your voice heard. So that's a great point.
Another interesting question that came in is around ... so obviously in retail, health care, and a few other industries, we've seen quite a bit of adoption; retail in particular.
Are there insights that can be gained from those industries that have long-standing experience using RAIN RFID that can be applied to the food industry as different companies start thinking about how to start and what they want to make sure they do to not run into any of the challenges or obstacles we know we can already overcome.
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: I can kick this one off, and building on what Thomas just highlighted. The perennial debate about what data is encoded on the tag versus what data is provided in a lookup table or a product cloud.
This is a question that other industries are also asking and answering for themselves, and we believe that every industry needs to answer it for themselves, and every business really needs to answer it for themselves depending on what use cases they're looking at. So whether or not you encode critical data beyond the item-level SKU and the serial number.
In addition to the SKU, it could be something like the GS1 GTIN.
Beyond that information, what additional information you encode on the tag really depends on your use case and your industry. And so you have to decide what's right for you. With that said, what we have seen work in other industries, in the retail industry, we've seen strong adoption of 96- and 128-bit numbering systems. Like the SG10 96 is a heavily used numbering system in the retail industry.
And there are benefits to adopting these shorter numbering systems and then having additional item information such as batch lot or expiration date stored elsewhere.
And what we've seen in terms of the benefits, one of the key things is, is chip cost, which translates to tag cost.
The cost of storing memory in silicon versus storing it elsewhere in a cloud or in a database. Storing that memory in silicon is really expensive. What happens is the more memory you put on the chip, the larger the chip is. And when we manufacture these chips, we manufacture them on a single wafer. So the more chips that we can squeeze onto that wafer, that means the more cost-effective each of those individual chips will be.
When we look at revving our next generation of products and, you know, that constant drumbeat of increasing readability, read range, tag sensitivity, we do that as a company. We're turning that crank every one or two years.
The chips that are 96 to 128 bits, those are the ones that benefit from that increase in performance steadily every single time. The higher memory chips tend to be updated less frequently, and so what can happen is you might have a chip that's not the most performant in the market because you want that higher memory capacity on the tag chip. And, again, there's no right answer. It depends on the industry. It depends on the use case, but these are some of the best practices that we've seen from industries like retail.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Very interesting. Okay.
One of the other questions...I think we have time for one or two questions.
So I've been noticing as well in the news. There's been a couple of recalls lately, across different types of products.
And I think I know I've been one of the people who...I think there was a 300-something page list posted of different products that were on this recall list that went across probably most of the stores that many people shop at. I have to ask, if those products were tagged with RAIN RFID, how would that recall process look different?
I know that's a big question.
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: It is. I can kick us off. I think that that list would be much shorter, and that's what it comes down to. If RFID was in place in the food industry, if it was more widely used there.
And I say that because I go back to the surgical removal of...the difference between being able to remove the just the affected batch and lot codes instead of, out of an abundance of caution, removing everything.
And so when you go to the grocery store and you see that there is absolutely no type of the lettuce that you were looking for that day or no type of the meat that you were looking for that day, there would be more products on the shelf if there was confidence that you were removing the right lot codes from the supply chain.
And I think right now, we're doing the right thing as a food industry and out of an abundance of caution removing as much as possible. But I think in the future with the implementation of RAIN RFID that there would be more food on the shelves.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. That's very, very interesting.
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: And I might just add a little bit too, to Amber's points.
I think that the cycle of what a food recall looks like will be empowered if RFID becomes more prevalent too because there is the trace-back that occurs. Because this is happening because something is wrong, like, let's say, misdeclared allergen or there are illnesses that are occurring.
And the thing is, is that the trace-back question can also be quite tricky because people are terrible at remembering what they ate -- even the same day. And then if you account for the incubation period of a particular pathogen that may be happening in a foodborne illness emergency, it's a lot of food that you would have to potentially recall. This whole thing about being able to capture this identity at really specific points in the supply chain empowers that. You know that this product was in a certain place, and you can use our kind of poor recall, or maybe actually even being able to capture this at the point of sale and attach it to a specific receipt, then you can start that trace with so much more precision than you would have had in the past.
And then once you arrive at, "This is where the problematic product is or this is what it is,” we need to expand this out to wherever it was distributed. Then we also have a much better ability to make sure that that information was captured through distribution.
Often, there can be a bit of missing information in distribution because there can be kind of not necessarily utilizing that data that has that lot-specific information as it's going through distribution channels. So, both the understanding of where what product is and then also where did that product go can really be capitalized on if efficient data capture without line of sight becomes ubiquitous.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Thank you. Absolutely. And like I said, when these notifications come out, all of us are running to our freezer and thinking about what we ate and just understanding that the process can not only be more efficient, but less wasteful is really impactful.
I think we have time for one more question. So a few questions came up in the chat around...are there any case studies? Are there any company names? Are there any partners that we can suggest for people who want to find out more information?
Are there, again, case studies out there that we can refer to? You know, Megan or Amber or even Thomas, any recommendations to our audience?
Megan Brewster, Vice President, Advanced Technology, Impinj: Well, I know that Thomas was previously with Chipotle. So I would like to mention Chipotle as one brand to consider looking at: what are they learning, how are they thinking about this opportunity and the challenges in this space.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. Fantastic.
And I think Amber...I know Impinj has information on our website.
And Amber, PLM TrustLink, I'm sure has great information on their website as well.
Amber Engebretson, Solution Consultant, PLM TrustLink: Yes. We have information on our website. There are many case studies out there. And if you’d like to reach out afterwards, I’d be happy to...I think our emails will be available and we can share those case studies.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Perfect. Any last closing words from anyone about this topic?
Thomas Burke, Research Associate, Georg-August Universität Göttingen: I'll just say, in terms of organizations too, definitely be involved with GS1 US or your local member organization of GS1. AIM is also a great standardization agency in this space, as well as the RAIN Alliance. And the Institute of Food Technologists is a scientific nonprofit that works in the space with the Global Food Traceability Center. I also feel that being in with the recent initiative with the new era of smarter food safety from the FDA...they are also taking this kind of proactive look at how technology can empower the future of food safety.
Ashley Burkle, Business Development Director, Impinj: Yeah. So important. So important. Thank you. Well, time went really fast. I want to thank our panelists today for sharing their insights. Thank you to the audience for your participation and great questions.
So we'll see you next time. Thank you.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024