Development of temperature-managed traceability system for frozen and chilled food during storage and transportation

Temperature is one of the most important parameters of the quality control for frozen and chilled food, and then freshness is almost exclusively a function of time and temperature. As the temperature management is a very important function for fresh foods, it is desirable that the quality conditions during storage and transport are clearly understood and traceable. This paper describes the development of a temperature-managed traceability system based on RFID tag, GPS, mobile communication based on TTT theory. The system has been tested with the Haikou-Beijing transport scenario for chilled tilapia. The results show that the system is helpful in quality control, traceability and efficiency of frozen and chilled food during storage and transportation chain. In addition, the system also has significant impact on stakeholders across the supply chain via improved quality and reduced cost.