State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Hawaii Farm Bureau use RFID to Track and Trace Fresh Produce for Food Safety Certification Pilot Program

The State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture and the Hawaii Farm Bureau have partnered to deploy a three-year pilot RFID initiative. The Hawaii Produce Traceability initiative uses UPM Raflatac RFID inlays to track and trace fresh produce throughout the State’s food supply chain. The innovative initiative, the first of its kind in the US, is designed to promote food safety by providing product visibility down to the farm or even field level. The RFID system provides detailed, real-time information, which can be used to optimize the supply chain, enable recalls in less than an hour and improve inventory control.

Participants can use gathered data to optimize harvest productivity, strengthen food processing controls, increase cold chain visibility, reduce produce dwell time on shipping and receiving docks, accelerate transportation times between trading partners and improve inventory turns. This enables them to optimize margins in the competitive food industry. In the event of a food recall growers can quickly identify if they are impacted, thus enhancing their brand and protecting revenues. Affected growers can localize the impact of relevant recalls to the field level, minimizing losses.

State officials are considering enhancements to the next two phases of the project, such as deploying RFID-enabled cellphones to enable more farms to participate, and implementing produce temperature tracking to reduce the threat of food spoilage. The initiative could be expanded to cover 5,000 state farms at full implementation.

“The Hawaii Produce Traceability initiative is an integral part of the State Food Safety Certification system,” said Dr. John Ryan, administrator, Quality Assurance Division, State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture. “This project provides the backbone for future and more preventive closed-loop sensor technologies which are capable of measuring and reporting biocontaminants and temperature variations via the RFID system as produce moves through the supply chain. The RFID system will provide managers with improved real-time control over potential food safety problems and help to prevent wide-spread human and economic impact.”

UPM Raflatac tag performance is currently being tested on shipments between Armstrong Produce and the Kaneohe, Hawaii Marine Base commissary. This important addition to the pilot program is in compliance with the Department of Defense RFID directives.

“The Hawaii Produce Traceability initiative is providing UPM Raflatac with the opportunity to showcase the versatility and durability of its ShortDipole tag, which provides exceptional yields and performance throughout its lifecycle,” said Jan Svoboda, sales and marketing director, Americas, RFID, UPM Raflatac.

Many of Hawaii’s leading growers, distributors and retailers, including Sugarland Farms, Hamakua Heritage Farms, Kula Country Farms, Maui Pineapple, Twin Bridge Farms, Kahuku Brand, Armstrong Produce and Foodland Stores have chosen to participate in this voluntary program. The initiative tracked several types of fresh produce including e.g. asparagus, eggplants, pineapples and tomatoes.

Funding for the pilot program was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Development Alliance of Hawaii, Federal State Marketing Improvement Program, and Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation. The pilot has been awarded with a Computerworld Laureate Gold Medal for using information technology to benefit society.