FoodLogistics.com |

SELLING POINT: Damage to perishable foods accounts for 56 percent of all produce shrinkage in the U.S.

No one wants to buy spoiled produce or wilted flowers-and most people take it for granted that they don't have to, because trusted retailers offer products to consumers at just the right temperatures, quality and freshness.

Managers of temperature-controlled supply chains, or cold chains, can't afford to take anything for granted. The products they sell are handed off through a maze of shippers and distributors on their way to end users and temperature failure at just a single point in the chain can ruin a load.

For years, temperature-critical chains have responded to this need by placing mechanical strip-chart recorders and electronic time-and-temperature recorders inside shipments. But these devices are limited in the data they produce and collecting and using that data involves extra labor and potential errors.

Now, radio frequency identification (RFID)-which uses tags that can store much more data and then quickly and wirelessly transmit this data to readers-is bringing new levels of strategic and operational decision-making, visibility and convenience to cold chain management.

Instead of digging through a crate to find the temperature recorder, manually downloading its data into a computer and shipping the used sensor back to the shipper, RFID-enabled temperature monitors automatically transmit the time-and-temperature data from inside the refrigerated trailers as they pull up to loading docks, which house the RFID readers.