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RFID IN THE FOOD CHAIN

Improve Food Safety and

Business Efficiencies in the

Meat-Processing Industry

Stéphane Dubé, Quality Assurance Manager

Grégory Pétrieux VP, Business Development

• Companies overview

• Traceability - Statistics

• Traceability - Livestock - World Status

• Traceability in Quebec

• Slaughtering Process

• Project objectives

• The solution

• Why RFID?

• Solution description

• Benefits

• Questions

Content

RFID in the food chain

Companies overview

• Offer solutions to market highly standardized: agri-food, aerospace, etc.

• Canada, USA, Europe

• Partner :

• Codification :

• Beef and steer processing

• The largest beef processor in Eastern Canada

• Production for Canada, Asia, United States, South America

RFID in the food chain

Traceability - Statistics

RFID in the food chain

Traceability - Statistics

RFID in the food chain

Traceability - Statistics

RFID in the food chain

Traceability – World Status

RFID in the food chain

Traceability in Quebec

RFID in the food chain

General benefits of complete eTrace SolutionRFID in the food chain

• Costs reduction on food recalls

• Reaction time : less than 4 hours, generally 20 minutes

• Increase security level in agribusiness industry

• Increase productivity and reduce manual operations

• Real time access to relevant data

• Amount reduction of relevant data

• Increase management efficiency for logistic operations

• Possibility to integrate data with financial systems and ERP

• Better inventory management, warehousing and sales/inventory ratio

• Facilitates audits and traceability processes

RFID in the food chainTraceability – Slaughterhouse solution

RFID in the food chainTraceability – Slaughterhouse solution

• Middleware

• RFID equipments management

• Reading management

• Software

• Collecting data

• Slaughtering management

The solution

• Slaughtering management software

• Middleware : RFID reading and equipments management

• Gen 2, passive, reusable RFID tag

• Motorola's XR400-Series Fixed RFID Readers

• AN200 General Purpose Indoor/Outdoor Antenna readers

• Touch screen industrial computer

• Zebra’s industrial printer

• Cameras (certifications)

RFID in the food chain

RFID in the food chainCase Study – Levinoff-Colbex S.E.C.

Project objectives

• Food safety

• Market positioning

• Prevention of animal diseases outbreaks and potential contamination

• Efficiency of transformation process

• Certification of international markets

• Ultimate objective = traceability

« Trustworthy system to identify and locate all affected products »

RFID in the food chain

Slaughtering Process at Levinoff-Colbex

Why RFID?

• Traceability and operation management automatization

• Harsh environments :

– pressure spray, high temperatures, humidity, extreme shocks, soaking

in caustic soda, etc

• Metal environment

• Multi-rail Management

• Integration with slaughtering management software

RFID in the food chain

Solution description

RFID in the food chain

Veterinarian Station –Holds, releases,

condemnations

Triggers automatically

warnings at blood , legs,

heads and offals stations.

• Ensuring precise product traceability, achieving ROI in less than one year by increasing process and staffing efficiency

• Increasing revenue by as much as 10 to 15 percent by enabling penetration of new international markets

• Providing real-time data to support effective management decisions.

RFID in the food chainBenefits

Traceability helps find Markets –McDonald’s

« McDonald’s Canada has decided that is ground beef from Canadian cull cows will come from Quebec, in part because it has a beef traceability program. »

Traceability isn’t our only selling point but it has been key. It has been a marketing Gold Mine.

RFID in the food chainBenefits

Japanese Article

Japan, Date Verified: cattle less then 21 months of age Must be determined utilizing physiological evaluation (A40) or age verification through documentation

« Japanese importer Zénsho has found the world’s best beef in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover. (…)The company, which just signed an agreement with the Levinoff-Colbex cattle slaughter and processing plant, turned its back on Australia, Alberta and the Western United States. »

« The province’s traceability system is one of the best in the world. It makes it possible to establish the animal’s origins, its genetic past and its age. »

Zénsho is the owner of 3,900 Japanese restaurants.

RFID in the food chainBenefits

Animal’s Tag

From farm to slaughterhouse

Declaration of the arrival lots

Slaughterhouse

Raising railIdentification with RFID tag on the hook and slauthtering sequence

Slaughterhouse

Blood StationAnimal Identification – Labelling of the blood bag

Slaughterhouse

Low legs StationAnimal identification – Labelling of the legs barrel

Slaughterhouse

RFID readings – Rise railTag certification

Blood station

Legs station

Transfer before main rail

Slaughterhouse

Transfer on the main railRFID reading to associate the rise rail hook

with the position on the main rail

Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

Identification and certification Station for the age of the animalRFID reading of the tag of the animal and association with the position on

the main rail

Certification Station (Angus) Photo of the carcass and RFID reading to

associate the photo with position on main rail

Slaughterhouse

Heads StationAnimal identification – RFID reading of the carousel position and association with the

position on the main rail – Labelling of the head

Slaughterhouse

Offals StationRFID reading of the tray position and

association with the main rail position

Slaughterhouse

Veterinarian Station – before the back rail

RFID reading to identify the carcass.

The veterinarian inspects

and decides wether to let go,

hold, condemn or release

the carcass

Slaughterhouse

Scale StationRFID reading to idendify the carcass

• Weight associated with the carcass

• Printing of the barcode label with

product description

• Additional informations (ex. Grade)

Slaughterhouse

Inventory – Refrigeration – Localization

Slaughterhouse