Published on June 06, 2005

Shrimp will soon be able to tell consumers their place of origin and how well they were fed at the shrimp farm. With radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and food-traceability software, those who love to eat the marine creatures can be assured of their safety.

To enable tons of shrimp from different farms to “speak”, IE Technology – an RFID application developer – has been working to embed RFID microchips into the plastic trays used by farms and middle markets to hold shrimp before distribution to processors.

The development is aimed at supporting the second phase of a food-traceability project, a collaboration between the Science and Agriculture ministries that attempts to make it possible for manufacturers, kitchen staff and even consumers to trace the origin of food back through all processes, ensuring safety.

“Normally, shrimp are shipped in trays from farm to market, after which all are graded by size and mixed in large receptacles. The shrimp travel from one tray to another, then another. Although the farms deploy an automatic system to store shrimp data, it is during this part of the process, when they’re all mixed together, that it becomes impossible to identify which farms the shrimp in each tray come from,” said Naiyavud Wongkomet, managing director of IE Technology.

To solve this problem, the company has worked to put RFID chips into the plastic trays. It aims at storing all shrimp-related data – place of birth, lineage, medical record, use of protein supplements – on microchips embedded in each tray, not only those used on the farm, but also those at the middle market and factory.

“Bar codes can’t be used, because they don’t withstand water as well as they do temperature. More importantly, speed in reading and transferring data is not something that bar codes can offer,” he said.

Apiwat Thongprasert, a consultant with IE Technology’s business-development division, said that it is not easy to implant RFID chips in plastic trays, because the chips must be placed into one of many holes before resins seal them up.

“It requires a fair amount of resin, but at the same time data needs to be emitted through the seal. For wider implementation of RFID-based trays, we’re thinking of embedding chips during the moulding process, but that would require collaboration over a wider area,” he said.

Apiwat said the microchips used in the project were developed by Silicon Craft Technology, Thailand’s first company for designing RFID chips. The chips operate at 134.2 kHz, a passive, low frequency. The beauty of the passive microchip is that it not only withstands water and cold temperatures, but also allows data to be read wirelessly.

At the same time, IE Technology developed an RFID reader that can resist ice and water. To make RFID readers suitable for routine work in the shrimp market, the company initially designed readers of two types – stationary and handheld.

The fixed stationary readers collect data from the chips embedded in the trays, while the handheld ones double-check the information to prevent any possible error.

He said that once shrimp in the trays are mixed, readers scan information from one tray before copying it into the next tray, and so on until the last tray is done.

“This does not tell exactly which shrimp comes from which farm, but with the information cloned from tray to tray, manufacturers will know for sure how many farms the shrimp in each tray are from. This helps narrow the traceability process,” he said.

Since shrimp importers and exporters are required to submit DS-2031 declaration forms to the Fisheries Department asking for permission to conduct business, there is also a plan to enable those companies to submit the form and receive permission online. The ID number that companies are assigned by the department will also be stored in the RFID chip embedded in the trays. This way, when data is traced back, the original route of the targeted shrimp can be determined.

To complete the traceability process, the FXA Group is developing software to manage the flow of RFID information. FXA is a food-industry software firm that has created Web-based, data-tracing software enabling agricultural-product exporters electronically to collect and trace all data related to the processing of their products.

Initially, five shrimp farms are expected to participate in the second phase of the food-traceability project.

Suchalee Pongprasert

The Nation

suchalee@nationgroup.com

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