The increasing globalization of our food supply, food shortages, and concerns about food safety and quality is causing food producers, shippers, retailers and consumers alike to closely examine how our food is grown, processed, and handled throughout the supply chain.

In Episode 3 of The RFID Network Cable TV Series, our team makes in-depth investigative examination of food safety, food quality, and food integrity, and looks at how RFID can be used to make our food safer and fresher.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, -- The RFID Network is pleased to announce a new TV series focused on how Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is transforming our world. The RFID Network, a 30-minute educational television program, examines the exponentially expanding "Internet-of-Things", which refers to linking objects installed with RFID via the Internet, and features high-tech solutions filmed at locations all over the globe. The episodes scheduled for broadcast include: Covert Operations, Improving Food Safety, and Securing Sea Ports, with more shows in development.

The RFID Network TV show is now on 17 U.S. cable networks and reaches millions of viewers while the RFID.net website averages over 100,000 views per month.

Traditional Passive RFID Tags rely on gathering energy from the RFID Reader's signal to wake up the integrated circuit (IC) and provide the backscatter required for identification. BAP RFID tags contain their own integrated power source, which is most commonly a battery. It’s very important not to confuse BAP tags with Active RFID Tags. Active tags transmit a beacon at a defined interval. BAP tags do not transmit. The range is improved because no energy needs to be harvested from the reader to power the chip and all of the captured energy can be used for backscatter.

Why RFID Reader Sensitivity is Critical When Using BAP RFID Tags

Since our first BAP (Battery Assisted Passive) RFID benchmark tests in 2009, RFID Network engineers have received dozens of calls from people complaining that BAP tags perform no better than 20¢ passive labels. While they're both passive RFID, they are designed in very different ways. In nearly every situation, the problem is the RFID reader being used does not have high sensitivity. Obviously, some RFID readers perform better than others, but this is especially true when working with BAP tags. In this video, intended for our technical viewers, we talk with Dean Kawaguchi who sits on the ISO RFID committee to understand why reader sensitivity is critical when working with BAP tags.

Watch the two videos & read the in-depth technical article

Using RFID for Animals, Food and Farming will grow 307% from $1.17 billion in 2011 to $4.09 billion according to IDTechEx. CattleIdentification.org and The RFID Network have put together a comparison of EID (Electronic Identification Device) tags or RFID ear tags for use on cattle. We tested a variety of EID tags using both ISO 11784 and ISO 11785 and ISO/IEC 18000-6C / GS1 EPCglobal C1G2 standards.

Watch the two videos & read the in-depth technical article