The eTrace project (eRek) is now in its second year and its results are already attracting considerable attention. The purpose of the project is to define, develop and implement a traceability system based on the EPCIS standard and to examine whether it is suitable for food traceability.
Integrating food safety information with other real-time traceability information opens up opportunities to simultaneously increase product safety.
This spring, an experimental run was carried out in Sweden on the software that has been developed in the project, where fish tanks were marked with RFID tags as soon as they were landed. RFID tags emit radio waves, which can be easily read and the tags were glued to the outside of pots, boxes and packaging. In this way, the movement of cod from fishing, through processing and all the way to consumers could be monitored automatically. The gloves were used to obtain information on the location and timing of RFID tags, through landing and processing in Simrishavn and to consumers in Gothenburg.
Information made visible to consumers.
The implementations that have been developed in the project are promising and our Swedish cousins appreciated the further information about the fish in graphic form. Sales increased significantly for those products where traceability information was available and store owners were very pleased to be able to show consumers the product's path from fishing to the fish table. The RFID tags used in the test run proved their worth, but so far there have often been problems with the use of RFID tags in the wet and cold conditions of fish processing.
Fish boxes marked with RFID tags are scanned upon landing.
As mentioned above, the aim of the project is to develop and implement a traceability system based on the EPCIS standard. The system replaces the fact that information is collected manually, thus increasing automation and reducing the possibility of mistakes. The Swedish Fisheries Inspectorate (Fiskeriverket), which is a participant in the project, sees great potential for the EPCIS standard and RFID tags to meet the recent EU regulation no. 1224/2009, which states that member states must demonstrate the complete traceability of fish products. Their interest is also due to the fact that they believe that the system could be useful for fisheries management.
Screenshot of the software showing the processing process of fish, where fish comes from both the ship and the market. After processing these 6 boxes of fish, 6 packs of fish will be stacked on one pallet. Behind this picture is further information that is useful for product traceability.
A similar experimental run is planned for Iceland this autumn, where this technology will be used to accompany fish from fishing, through processing and all the way to consumers in Europe.
Many companies and institutions are responsible for the project and Matís oversees certain aspects of its work, but Valur Gunnlaugsson and Sveinn Margeirsson have had their way and problems with Matís' work in the project. In addition to Matís, the Norwegian companies SINTEF and TraceTracker, Lund University, the technology company Roi4u and the Swedish Fisheries Inspectorate are among the participants in the project, which is funded by the SafeFoodEra program.