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COVAP, an agricultural cooperative in the Andalusia region of southern Spain, now uses passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tags to track high-quality ham-Iberian ham.
COVAP is the largest industrial and agricultural cooperative in Andalusia, with sales of US$444 million in 2008. COVAP was the first to adopt RFID technology in its milk manufacturing department. After the pilot project, the cooperative installed an RFID system to control the movement of 1,300 pallets every day. The cooperative now tracks the ham from the butchery plant to multiple preparation and food processing processes. COVAP plans that this application will have to run for at least three years-the time required for the production of ham and the complete data collection of the entire internal production process.
This application is part of the EU-sponsored BRIDGE research project. The purpose of the BRIDGE project is to promote the global application of RFID and EPCglobal technologies. The COVAP pilot project, part of BRIDGE Work Package 8 (the application of RFID in the manufacturing process), was launched in November 2008 and ended in July 2009.
Alexandra Brintrup is a leader in the information and automation laboratory of the University of Cambridge, a partner organization of the BRIDGE project. She said that COVAP was selected as one of the BRIDGE projects because of its previous positive experience in tracking milk with a long shelf life using RFID.
There are several reasons why the cooperative wants to expand its RFID application and participate in the BRIDGE project: reduce product processing time, control products category by category, and track whether the production of each ham complies with food safety regulations. In addition, COVAP sees that RFID can help the company improve the processing process (approximately 300,000 hams are processed each year) and a large number of production variables. By obtaining item-level visibility at various production stages and processing three-year production data, COVAP can improve process efficiency and better understand how slight changes in production conditions affect the taste and quality of ham.
The ham production process is as follows. COVAP first slaughters pigs and cuts the pigs into four pieces; then drying and processing the pork legs; the pork legs are processed, salted and sorted according to weight and other factors. The ham production manager judges the exact production process of each batch of ham based on multiple factors, including the type of pig and the PH value of the pork. The fire feet are then placed in a temperature-controlled cellar for aging, and the cellar reproduces the original conditions of hand-made ham. Even slight changes in temperature will affect the taste of the meat, and the ham manager must ensure the quality of each batch of ham.
During the pilot project, COVAP and its technical solution partner AT4 Wireless conducted extensive tests before selecting RFID inlays and designing a label that can withstand the meat processing process, including scorching the surface of the ham to control fungal growth. Testing is carried out in the AT4 Wireless laboratory and COVAP site, and candidate labels are tested in multiple processing processes. Germark finally won the project and is currently developing an open version of the label.
At present, COVAP has pasted a preliminary version of RFID tags on approximately 5,500 hams. Once the upgraded label has been developed, the cooperative plans to use the label on all hams.
Two readers mounted on a 12-foot-tall antenna stand
Initially, there were special protective materials on the front and back of the label. However, COVAP and Germark believe that the new label will only use this material on the meat side. This can reduce the cost of labeling, says Santiago Tirado, COVAP IT director.
After the pigs are cut and cleaned, COVAP attaches RFID tags to the ankles of each foot and attaches the same type of strip tags used in the tracking system in the past. COVAP will continue to use barcodes as a backup system. Tirado said: “The two systems are compatible with each other, the barcode will not incur any additional costs, and we have no reason to eliminate it.”
A unique ID code is stored in the tag. The detailed information of the ham, including the medical information of the original pig, is stored in a database corresponding to the ID code. The cooperative uses Intermec readers to read tags at five different points in the production process. The earliest label reading took place in the slaughterhouse, and the label was read directly. The read information is used for inventory management and to start the tracking process. The product then follows a conveyor belt through a forming channel to squeeze out the blood. Before the ham enters the channel, the RFID reader reads the tag. Next, the ham is salted, and the label is read again before salting.
“Each reading point requires a different antenna type and reader configuration,” Tirado explained, “This is not a plug-and-play application. We did a lot of tests to select and design the reader, and finally decided to use near-field Combination with far-field antenna”.
Another reading point is in the batch transition phase, where the ham production manager decides where to move the ham for further processing based on several parameters.
In addition, if necessary, COVAP may send the ham to a sorting machine, which judges the level of meat based on the weight and pH of the meat. Since COVAP operates multiple cellars to process ham, the cooperative decided to use a reader that can be moved from one cellar to another, instead of installing a reader at each cellar door. COVAP installs two readers on the trolley, each reader is equipped with 8 antennas. The 8 antennas of the reader are installed on a 12-foot-tall tower (the same height as the pile of ham) and can be moved through the ham drying rack (69 hams are hung on each rack). The average read rate is between 93% and 100%. During the test, the batch transition point had the lowest reading rate. COVAP later increased the reading rate by rotating the ham rack so that each tag passed through an antenna.
COVAP uses independent software to integrate RFID data. Cambridge decentralized information and automated laboratories guide COVAP projects, help manage projects, develop business cases and key performance indicators. The university uses special simulation software to analyze the new process and compare it to the bar code system.
According to Tirado, this project improves product traceability, saves product search time and reduces waste. In addition, the company eliminated some manual scanning processes, saving time and money.
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