Baking & Snack - December 2006 - 97

Trends and Technology

PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY

for the industrial baking
market worldwide

Baking&Snack

Bakiñg&SflaCk.

ng&S i k.
Baking Co.

Read range. Bar codes may be read only
if they are visible. Passive RFID tags may be
read at distances of less than 20 ft. Active
RFID tags use batteries and can broadcast
a signal that can be read from greater distances - to at least 400 ft, if the battery is
powerful enough, and there is little electronic noise. This distance depends upon
the frequency of radio waves used in the
tag, the strength of the antenna and the
power output of the reader.
If the target item being scanned contains
water or metal, the range will be reduced
significantly. There are some who believe
that accuracy could be reduced by as much
as 75%. For the baking and snack industry,
the technology would be more applicable
since most baked or fried products are
fairly low in water, although many do use
metallized films.
Cost. The biggest stumbling block to
adoption of RFID technology is cost. As
an example, a 96-bit EPC tag costs from 20
to 40c apiece. If the tag is embedded in a
thermal transfer label on which companies
ᮢ The smart label printer/encoder supports ultra-highfrequency RFID tags. UHF is perfect for tagging pallets,
cartons and cases throughout the supply chain because
their long read ranges allow for unattended batch reading.
ROCKWELL AUTOMATION

Baking & Snack International is the
only truly worldwide publication for
industrial baking. In just two years,
Baking & Snack International has
become the leading magazine
for directors, managers and other
decision makers who are looking to
expand their markets in the rapidly
changing and growing industrial
baking market.
For free subscription or
advertising information, please
visit us at www.BSImagazine.com
or call (+1) 816-756-1000.

100 / BAKING & SNACK / December 2006

can print a bar code, the price rises to more
than 40c. Low-frequency transponders in
a plastic card can be $4.00 or more. Highfrequency transponders range from $2.50
(in a card) to $6.00 or more for special formats. The ultimate goal would be to reduce
the cost of a tag to 5c. This price point is
still a dream, however. Given the fact that
the margins on foods are quite low, adding
20 to 40c to the price of an individual item
would not be economical.
At present, RFID tags are used by food
processors only for tracking products down
to the case level. Application of RFID tags
to pallets is practiced even more. Of course,
there is one more issue that may drive the
adoption of RFID ... economic pressures.
Wal-Mart has pushed its vendors to adopt
the technology, a push that resulted in significant reduction of out-of-stock items
and more rapid replenishment of items.
Current uses of RFID occur in high-value
products. For example, suppliers of packaging materials such as stretch wrap are
among the most recent to adopt RFID.
Standardization. The importance of
standardization cannot be overemphasized.
UPCs have an internationally recognized
standard. At the present time, there is no
standard for RFID or EPC, although EPC-

http://www.BSImagazine.com

Baking & Snack - December 2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - December 2006