Accepted Manuscript

A review: RFID technology having sensing aptitudes for food industry and their
contribution to tracking and monitoring of food products

Fabien Bibi, Carole Guillaume, Nathalie Gontard, Brice Sorli

PII: S0924-2244(16)30419-8
DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2017.01.013
Reference: TIFS 1964

To appear in: Trends in Food Science & Technology

Received Date: 21 September 2016

Revised Date: 14 January 2017
Accepted Date: 14 January 2017

Please cite this article as: Bibi, F., Guillaume, C., Gontard, N., Sorli, B., A review: RFID technology
having sensing aptitudes for food industry and their contribution to tracking and monitoring of food
products, Trends in Food Science & Technology (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.tifs.2017.01.013.

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Highlights

Novel study based on RFID tags to be coupled to sensors

Passive and active RFID systems

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Study of different types of sensors

RFID sensor tags in food industry for traceability

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Food monitoring for safety

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1 A REVIEW: RFID TECHNOLOGY HAVING

2 SENSING APTITUDES FOR FOOD INDUSTRY
3 AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO TRACKING

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4 AND MONITORING OF FOOD PRODUCTS

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5 Fabien Bibia*, Carole Guillaumea, Nathalie Gontarda, Brice Sorlib
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6 Joint Research Unit Agropolymers Engineering and Emerging Technologies, UMR 1208

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7 INRA/SupAgroM/UMII/CIRAD, 2 Place Pierre Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France.

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8 Institut dElectronique et des Systmes, Universit Montpellier 2, 860 Rue Saint-Priest,
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9 34090 Montpellier, France.

10 *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Fabien Bibi.

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11 Email: bibi.fabien@hotmail.com
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12 Abstract: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has considerably grown in the
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13 past few years and is nowadays sought to be implemented for the identification of products
14 and for traceability in the agrifood sector, ensuring food safety and quality. RFID is now
15 considered as the worthy successor of the barcode with a foreseen expansion not only in the
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16 agrifood sector, but also in industrial sectors for environmental monitoring (temperature,
17 relative humidity and luminosity) through namely WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) and WST
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18 (Wireless Sensor Technology). Research studies are being progressively performed in the
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19 objective of coupling sensors to the RFID technology. This interfacing would lead to a better
20 monitoring of packaging headspace by means of the development of different sensors, as well
21 as their coupling to RFID tags through the microchip or directly to the RFID antenna. The
22 present work gives an overview of the basics of the RFID technology, the existing sensors and
23 the ones being developed to be interfaced with the technology, as well as the existing RFID
24 sensor tags. The presented literature studies, mainly in the agrifood sector, demonstrate how
25 RFID may meet our needs for a better monitoring of food quality by coupling radio frequency
26 communication and traceability. The implementation of sensors which is a very new

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27 technology being studied and concomitantly developed may lead to a better detection of food
28 degradation markers and thus to a reduction in food loss which is one of the worlds major
29 issue.

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31 Keywords: RFID technology, traceability, food monitoring for safety, sensors, RFID tags

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32

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33 Table of contents
34 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 4

35 2 RFID technology - briefly ........................................................................... 5

36 2.1 Components and systems ............................................................................................... 6

37 2.2 Types of tags................................................................................................................... 8

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38 2.3 Operating frequencies ..................................................................................................... 9
39 2.4 Standards ...................................................................................................................... 11

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40 3 RFID tags in food industry........................................................................ 12

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41 3.1 The needs ...................................................................................................................... 12
42 3.2 The cost ........................................................................................................................ 15
43 3.3 The prospects ................................................................................................................ 16
44 3.4
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Cold Chain Applications .............................................................................................. 17
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45 4 Sensors and RFID sensor tags in food industry ........................................ 18

46 4.1 Food quality monitoring systems ................................................................................. 24

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47 4.2 Food quality monitoring systems interfaced with RFID tags ....................................... 28
48 4.3 Application of RFID sensor tags .................................................................................. 33
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49 4.4 Technical challenges .................................................................................................... 33

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50 5 Conclusion................................................................................................. 34

51 6 Funding sources ........................................................................................ 36

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52 7 Acknowledgement..................................................................................... 36
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54

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55 1 Introduction
56 RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) made its apparition during the second world war
57 (1939-1945) for the identification of Friend or Foe (IFF) military aircrafts (Kumari, Narsaiah,
58 Grewal, & Anurag, 2015). The first apparatus were passive and the system merged to active
59 apparatus later on and to modern electronics (Stockman, 1948). RFID is one of the major
60 technologies in the field of identification. Its technology is based on a wireless

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61 communication, particularly through radiofrequency waves, between a tag attached to an
62 object and an interrogator. This system is more convenient for product identification

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63 compared to other identification systems such as barcodes. For example, RFID tags do not
64 require visual contact and thus can be placed into boxes, containers, injected into animals and

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65 embedded into any objects such as passports (Finkenzeller, 2010). It is obvious that barcodes
66 have limited capabilities compared to RFID, but due to the present cost of barcodes, they are

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67 still on the market at the expense of RFID. In spite of this, RFID systems are gaining more
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68 and more popularity in numerous sectors of activity (Kumari et al., 2015; Realini & Marcos,
69 2014; Xiao et al., 2007). Their domain of applications are expanding rapidly, where more than
70 3000 cases are known such as logistics, identification, toll road, pharmacy, and item, pallet
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71 and animal tracking. Due to the growing need of RFID, research has been undertaken on the
72 size, the cost, the reliability and data security of tags.
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73 One of the most promising areas of application is the agrifood sector. Traceability, ensuring
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74 food quality and safety is of a major concern in todays society. It is the ability to locate an
75 animal, commodity, food product or ingredient and follow the history in the supply chain
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76 forward, from the source to the consumer and backward, from the consumer to the source
77 (Costa et al., 2012). Therefore, nowadays, identification technologies and in particular RFID,
78 are becoming increasingly important, bringing gain in productivity, food safety and quality
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79 through traceability.
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80 In the objective of adding value to RFID technology, sensors are developed to be interfaced
81 with RFID tags, for monitoring different aspects of food quality for example milk freshness,
82 bacterial growth and fish spoilage (Vanderroost, Ragaert, Devlieghere, & De Meulenaer,
83 2014) and for reducing food waste being about 1/3 of the food production for human
84 consumption (Jenny Gustavsson, Cederberg, Sonesson, & Meybeck, 2011). One of the
85 precursors in the domain is the Time Temperature Indicator (TTI). TTI provides solutions for
86 ensuring the monitoring of the cold supply chain. In addition of that, coupling RFID tags with

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87 these sensors offers the opportunity to create a web database, available to the suppliers and
88 consumers, using the unique identification code attached to each product (Hu, Zhang, Moga,
89 & Neculita, 2013; Papetti et al., 2012). Other sensors being developed are gas sensors
90 (Espinosa et al., 2010; Jang & Won, 2014; Potyrailo & Surman, 2013; Vergara et al., 2007;
91 Vu & Won, 2013), chemical sensors (Bhadra, Thomson, & Bridges, 2015; Kassal, Steinberg,
92 & Steinberg, 2013; I. M. Steinberg & Steinberg, 2009; M. D. Steinberg, Kassal, Tkalec, &

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93 Murkovi Steinberg, 2014), humidity sensors (Abad et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2009; Oprea et
94 al., 2007; Rivadeneyra et al., 2014; Salmern et al., 2014), oxygen sensors (Martnez-Olmos

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95 et al., 2013) for intelligent packaging applications. With respect to this, the basic
96 functionalities of RFID has to be conserved, for tracking items on the whole supply chain

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97 using the electronic product code, and upon this, add new functionalities to RFID tags.

98 Intelligent packaging systems including sensors coupled to RFID tags, used for sensing,
99 communicating and monitoring food packaging headspace, should provide data about the
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food quality, safety and history. Within this context, the aim of this review is to produce an
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101 updated analysis of the functionalities of RFID. The basics of RFID are developed and the
102 evolution of food labels as a function of time is exposed, as well as the needs, the prospects
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103 and the cost. RFID in the agrifood sector is discussed and the opportunity is seized to unveil
104 innovations essentially in the sensor development field, coupled to RFID tags for real time
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105 monitoring of food quality.

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106 2 RFID technology - briefly

107 The abbreviation RFID stands for radio frequency identification, in other words, information
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108 carried by radio waves. RFID is used for product identification and for gathering information
109 on items automatically, without a physical connection or line of sight as required for other
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110 technologies such as barcodes. Figure 1 represents different RFID systems and their
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111 characteristics. They can be classified in three categories: passive, active and semi-passive,
112 having different working frequencies (Aguzzi et al., 2011; Roberts, 2006). The different parts
113 and components are presented and discussed in the following sections of the present work.

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114
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115 Figure 1: Radio frequency identification technology.

2.1 Components and systems

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117 RFID systems (figure 3) are made up of several components such as a RFID antenna used for
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118 communication, a chip for unique identification (by means of an electronic product code) and
119 for data storage, a reader or interrogator for wave emission and reception upon backscattering
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120 from the RFID tag, and a host computer for data saving and analysis. Depending on the types
121 of tags (passive, semi-passive or active), either no batteries are needed (passive tag), or a
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122 battery may be necessary for wave emission only (semi-passive tag), or for powering the
123 RFID tag and for wave emission (active tag).
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124 RFID Antenna: The RFID antenna, used for electromagnetic wave capture and emission, is
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125 made up of a metal pattern, which imposes the emission frequency. According to the
126 foreshadowed application, the designed antenna should have a low cost (substrate, conductors
127 and process), be non invasive, be as environmental friendly as possible, and have its
128 impedance matched to the one of the chip for a maximum energy transmission.

129 Chip: The chip contains the Electronic Product Code (EPC) which is made up of bits for
130 encoding information about the product. The EPC is unique to each tag and is recorded at the
131 time of production. The chip can be classified in terms of data access in 2 ways:

132 1) Read only;

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133 2) Read write.

134 The data access types determine how the information can be modified, changed or erased. A
135 reserved memory may also be allocated in the chip and used for adding a kill password or
136 access password. A user memory may be added and used for supplementary information such
137 as sensor data.

138 Electronic Product Code (EPC): The EPC bridges the gap between barcodes and the world

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139 of RFID, by providing greater inventory accuracy, regarding data contained by the EPC, and
140 by providing details so that many more unique objects can be identified. The EPC protocols

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141 are developed by EPCglobal in cooperation with the Auto-ID laboratories (Xiao et al., 2007).
142 The code can have 64 bits or 96 bits with different functionalities. It contains a header, an

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143 EPC manager, an object class and a serial number (Kumari et al., 2015). An example of a 96
144 bits EPC is shown in figure 2. The next generation of EPC is the electronic product code

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145 information services (EPCIS), which control information contained by EPC (tag ID, date of
146 manufacture, country of origin, production batch and shipment). EPCIS enable companies to
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147 themselves determine how data is accessed by partners, and can be considered as the trading
148 of EPC data between partners. Consequently, manufacturers, shippers, warehouses and
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149 retailers are all able to track the history and movement of products, giving the possibility to
150 distinguish between products (Finkenzeller, 2010).
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151
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152 Figure 2: Electronic product code - 96 bits type (Xiao et al., 2007).
153 Reader: The reader is an electronic apparatus used for electromagnetic wave emission and
154 reception. It detects and recognizes the identification information of the tag through the tag
155 ID, provided by the chip manufacturer. The reader has also the possibility to decode
156 information carried by the incident wave by means of a decoder (Kumari et al., 2015).

157 Host computer: A host computer is used to store information gathered from the interrogation
158 routines carried out by the reader. (Aguzzi et al., 2011; Costa et al., 2012; Roberts, 2006). It
159 can also, in some cases, be used for controlling the reader.

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160

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161 Figure 3: RFID tag inlay with the different components.

162 2.2 Types of tags

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163 RFID tags can be categorized in three types: Active tags, passive tags and semi passive tags.
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164 2.2.1 Passive tags
165 Passive tags do not contain onboard power sources. Instead, they rely on the wave emitted by
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166 the reader for powering the chip. By backscattering, an electromagnetic wave is sent back to
167 the reader. This type of tag has a typical reading distance up to 10m depending on the
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168 frequency (Tajima, 2007). The data transmission rate depends on the operating frequency and
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169 few tags can be read simultaneously. Data contained by the chip can be scanned multiple
170 times (write once and multiple readings). The interesting properties of the passive tags (low
171 cost, long operational life, small sized and light weighted) make them potential candidates for
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172 developing low cost devices.

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173 2.2.2 Semi-passive tags

174 Semi-passive tags are battery powered to electrically supply the chip only. The tags still rely
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175 on the reader for electromagnetic wave emission. The battery most of the time remains
176 inactive, and thus increases the life span of the tags. The power source provided on the semi-
177 passive tags increases the working range compared to passive tags. In some cases, the battery
178 found on the semi-passive tag may power supply a sensor interfaced to the chip and for sensor
179 recording.

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180 2.2.3 Active tags
181 These tags are embedded with a battery which is used for powering the chip and for wave
182 emission through an active transmitter. The reading range of the active tags is wider than the
183 passive ones, being of 30 m or more (Tajima, 2007). The transmission rate is fast and the
184 number of tags that can be read simultaneously is high. Multiple writings and readings can be
185 performed on the chips. However, the disadvantages are a high cost and the size of the tag

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186 which is quite invasive. The operational life of the tag depends on the battery life.

187 2.3 Operating frequencies

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188 RFID systems are also characterized by their communication frequencies. The use of radio
189 frequency waves are subjected to rules and regulations on the operational bands, field strength

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190 and reading distance (Laniel, mond, & Altunbas, 2011). Making use of these factors, several
191 frequency bands can be defined from the radio frequency spectrum (figure 4).

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192
193 Figure 4: Radio frequency spectrum showing RFID frequencies.
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194 Table 1 presents the different communication frequency bands and their characteristics. RFID
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195 communications work by wave emission without a conducting support. Two different
196 fundamental types of interactive modes exist between the reader and the tag: inductive
197 coupling, where energy transfer is performed by a magnetic field, and a radiative coupling,
198 where energy is transferred through an electromagnetic wave (Vergara et al., 2007). The
199 communication speed defines the rate at which data is transferred from the tag to the reader.
200 The reading distance is the maximum distance from which the tag can be identified and read.
201 Several applications are also presented in table 1.

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202 Low frequency (LF) band is found in between 125 kHz and 134 kHz. RFID tags in this
203 frequency band have the advantage of having little interferences with liquids and metals.

204 High frequency (HF) band has a popular frequency of 13.56 MHz, with a greater reading
205 range and higher reading speed of tags than in the LF domain.

206 Ultra high frequency (UHF) band is between 860 MHz and 960 MHz. UHF tags have a better
207 read range and improved data transfer than in the previous frequency bands, but are impaired

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208 by water and metals.

209 Super high frequency bands (SHF) is either at 2.45 GHz or 5.8 GHz. At these frequencies, the

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210 highest data transfer rates and identification are obtained. However, the tags have a high cost
211 and the electromagnetic waves are unable to penetrate metal and water.

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212 Considering table 1, the increase in frequency impacts several characteristics of RFID tags.
213 Globally, with increasing frequency, the communication speed is increased, which allows the
214
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215 distance depends on the application of the RFID tags. For example, a tag which is read only
216 or read/write will have different reading ranges because of: the energy required for powering
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217 the tags, the integration of other functions (sensors, extended memory) if any, the quality of
218 the RFID tag and reader, and the authorized power in the geographical area of use.
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220 Table 1: Communication frequency bands of RFID tags.

LF HF UHF SHF

Frequency 125-134 kHz 13.56 MHz 860-960 MHz 2.45 and

5.8 GHz
860 MHz-Europe
915 MHz-USA

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Coupling type Inductive Inductive Radiative Radiative
(near field) (near field) (far field) (far field)

Communication Few kb/s ~100 kb/s Few hundreds of kb/s Few hundreds

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speed of kb/s

Reading 20 cm-100 cm 0.1 m-1.5 m 3 m-15 m 3 m-30 m

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distance

Application Animal Cold chain Identification/transfer Toll, access

tracking where monitoring and good anti- control

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in animal (prevent interference
blood of radio waves
among devices
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221 2.4 Standards

222 RFID standards have been emerging since year 2000 due to its importance to ensure safety
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223 and operability of tags and RFID readers across countries. Standardizations describe several
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224 aspects of RFID tags and systems such as the format, the protocols, the contents of the
225 electronic product code (EPC), the operating frequencies used by the tags and readers.
226 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and EPCglobal (joint venture between
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227 the Uniform Code Council and the European Article Number International) are separate
228 organizations of RFID standards, working together towards single RFID standard scenarios,
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229 where standards are set for the use of RFID systems globally (Kumari et al., 2015).
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230 Operating frequencies: The standardization to which the operating frequencies are subjected
231 is the Federal Communications Commission (FFC) in the USA. It defines four different
232 operating frequencies (table 1) which are publicly available. Some standards dealing with
233 vicinity and smart RFID cards are ISO15693 standard and ISO14443 respectively (Swedberg,
234 2010) with working ranges up to 1m (Zampolli et al., 2008), for example in the development
235 of credit card-sized tags (M. D. Steinberg, Kassal, et al., 2014). ISO 18000-6A and ISO
236 18000-6B defines the UHF RFID tag standards (Nikitin & Rao, 2006; Xiao et al., 2007).

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237 Sensors: The incorporation of sensors to RFID technology has to be compatible with
238 standards such as the ISO15693 RFID protocol. However the latter is flexible enough to
239 accommodate the integration of a sensor data stream. For example, a thin film sensor (I. M.
240 Steinberg & Steinberg, 2009) and a conductometric interface (M. D. Steinberg, ura, &
241 Murkovic Steinberg, 2014) form an integral part of a radio-frequency smart card, that has
242 been designed for use in distributed chemical and biological detection systems. They are

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243 based on ISO15693 radio frequency identification protocol.

244 Other Standards: ISO11784 and ISO11785 are used for identification of animals. ISO8402

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245 defines traceability as the ability to retrieve historical information, use or localization of an
246 article, an activity, by means of a recorded identification. Protocol standards of ISO18000

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247 specify working frequency ranges of RFID systems. As such, ISO18000-6 covers the
248 frequency range for 860 MHz to 960 MHz. Other standards define the access mode (read and
249 write operations), the memory type, the memory organization, the data rate transfer, the tag
250
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reading speed, the reading range, the tag capacity and the type of tag (passive, semi-passive
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251 and active) (Garfinkel, 2002; Philipose, Smith, Mamishev, Roy, & Sundara-Rajan, 2005;
252 Schmidt, Gellersen, & Merz, 2000).
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253 Concerning the RFID readers, the lack of standards is a potential cause of interferences
254 among different readers, specifically when multiple RFID readers interrogate one RFID tag.
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255 But due to the relatively small scale adoption of RFID tags at the moment, it is not currently a
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256 problem.

257 3 RFID tags in food industry

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258 3.1 The needs

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259 Food labeling has gone through several stages of historical development. The
260 industrialization of food production brought consumers to be more reliant on food labels as a
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261 key source of information when purchasing food products. Figure 5 gives a representation of
262 the evolution of labels from a traditional sticker which has first been used, through the
263 barcode, up to RFID technology.

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264
265 Figure 5: Upgrading of labels for product identification.

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266 The omnipresent barcode systems have been widely used in the food sector. They contain
267 identification numbers and black bars (codes) that are read by optical scanners. Barcodes

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268 facilitate inventory control, stock re-ordering and checkout with additional information like
269 nutritional details, among others. These types of labels are cheap but however, have a limited
270 storage capacity with meager information stored. Innovation in barcode technology has given
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272 has to be read by a handheld scanner. The information is then displayed on a computer for
273 analysis or processing.
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274 In spite of the improvement in barcode technology, RFID is well positioned for the
275 withdrawal of barcodes (Costa et al., 2012). Significantly larger data storage capacity is
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276 available which can be used to store information such as temperature, relative humidity,
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277 nutritional and supplier information of the food chain. RFID provides real-time information
278 updates as the product moves through the supply chain, thus increasing traceability. Table 2
279 presents the advantages of RFID upon barcodes.
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281 Table 2: Differences between RFID technology and barcodes. Adapted from Xiao et al.
282 (2007).

Characteristics RFID Barcode

Traceability: communication to readers over the whole distribution chain

Multiple reading

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Reading rate

Tag scanning

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Multiple write and read

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Reading through multiple materials (paper, plastic) where radio waves go
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Life span

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Noninvasive label
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Environmental impact
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Market domination

283 Barcodes still dominate the market due to their low cost compared to the one of RFID.
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284 However, due to the numerous advantages of RFID systems compared to barcodes and to a
285 further extent, traditional labels (Finkenzeller, 2010), RFID systems are now beginning to
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286 conquer new mass markets.

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287 Traceability: Nowadays RFID is associated to traceability. It refers to the ability to locate
288 products for management, control and security aspects. Under the European Union law,
289 traceability is defined as the tracking of any food, feed, food-producing animal or substance,
290 which will be used for consumption, through all stages of production, processing and
291 distribution. It is strictly regulated, and identification of the origin and destination of food
292 products should be correctly labeled. Traceability is necessary as it is a way for responding to
293 potential risks that may arise in food or feed and thus, ensure the safety of food consumption
294 in the European Union (P. Taoukis, Katsaros, Li, & Derens-Bertheau, 2011). In addition,

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295 consumers demand for high food quality and safety is continuously rising, increasing the need
296 for new technologies to meet the demand (Thakur & Hurburgh, 2009).

297 In the agrifood sector, traceability is the tracking of the food product on the whole supply
298 chain (production, transportation, storage and delivery). RFID, giving the possibility to
299 identify and manage the massive amount of goods, has been applied (Kumari et al., 2015;
300 Sarac, Absi, & Dauzre-Prs, 2010), and is suitable for fulfilling the task of commodity

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301 tracking.

302 The gain in competitiveness, the effective tracking, the reduction of food waste, the guarantee

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303 for safe and good quality food products, the improvement in the management of stock and
304 reduction in labor cost are worth investing in RFID technology (Roberts, 2006). Numerous

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305 research articles exist on traceability. The monitoring of the quality of cheese in the goal of
306 obtaining a procedure for info-tracking systems, together with the combination with a web

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307 platform to access production history and quality of product using the RFID code on the web
308 has been developed (Papetti et al., 2012). In the same objective of using a web platform, a
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309 tracking and traceability system for animal product safety based on analysis of the factors that
310 affect pork products quality has been studied. Data collected by RFID was sent through the
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311 internet to servers, abattoir and retailers (Xiong Ben Hai et al., 2007). The implementation of
312 vegetable supply chain traceability to ensure the transportation of safe and pollution free
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313 vegetables to the market was also found in literature. Information is saved on RFID cards and
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314 linked to a web platform, available for consumers (Hu et al., 2013). Three other studies on
315 real time traceability in agri-food supply chains were also found (Feng, Fu, Wang, Xu, &
316 Zhang, 2013; Gandino, Montrucchio, Rebaudengo, & Sanchez, 2007; Thakur & Hurburgh,
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317 2009).

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319 3.2 The cost

320 The cost of the tag depends mostly on the type of tag and the implementation of the tag on the
321 market. In this respect, passive tags are becoming cheaper over the years down to about 40 to
322 50 cents per tag (Ahvenainen, 2003), due to their large scale integration into supply chain.
323 IDTechEx, supplied a report evidencing that the RFID market was worth $7.88 billion in
324 2013, up from $6.98 billion in 2012 and at that time predicted a growth of $9.2 billion in 2014
325 (including readers and software for RFID cards, labels and other factors). They forecast a rise
326 to $30.24 billion in 2024. This growth is mainly due to the passive UHF RFID labels and

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327 tagging of animals such as pigs, sheep and pets. However, the cost of tags below an order of 1
328 million is of $0.3 each, unfortunately more expensive than barcodes. This limits their usage as
329 some companies found that moving to RFID technology is unaffordable (Xiao et al., 2007). In
330 the case of semi-passive and active tags, the cost is significantly increased due to the use of
331 batteries, decreasing consequently the lifetime of the devices. In addition, environmental
332 issues may arise due the disposal of batteries (Metzger, Michahelles, & Fleisch, 2007). Two

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333 examples of active RFID tags that can operate in a wide range of environmental conditions
334 are the WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) and the WST (Wireless Sensor Technology). They

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335 can have great advantage in size and power (Alvarez, 2011). Within WSN and WST, two
336 standard technologies: Zigbee and Bluetooth devices are becoming more and more popular.

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337 They can be coupled to sensors such as temperature, humidity and volatile compound
338 detection. The cost of the radio chips of Zigbee and Bluetooth devices vary from $3/module
339 to $6/module. The surrounding electronics and the integration of sensors may add an

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340 additional cost up to $50/module. The use of a battery although providing enough power for
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341 data transmission and for powering the surrounding electronics, increases considerably the
342 price.
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343 The cost of RFID tags can be dropped by reducing labor cost, supply-chain cost, carrying
344 cost, theft, and to a further extent by increasing sales, improving tacking through warehouse
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345 and distribution centers (Estrada-Flores & Tanner, 2008; Xiao et al., 2007). The design of
346 cheap and high quality tags is essential and can be achieved by optimizing the manufacturing
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347 process by using low cost materials such as plastic or paper. Low cost metal such as
348 aluminum is forecasted as it has good electrical properties and is the cheapest. The method of
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349 depositing the metal on the substrate may also be optimized for cost reduction.

350 3.3 The prospects

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351 RFID is becoming increasingly important on the market by a gain in productivity, security
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352 and reactivity, with much effort put in for its complete deployment. For the technology to be
353 adopted on the market, it will be indispensable to have affordable RFID tags with high
354 performances. The application of RFID to traceability in the supply chain (Ruiz-Garcia &
355 Lunadei, 2011) foreshadows that the implementation of biosensor RFID application, in
356 numerous sectors such as agrifood sector, is only a time matter. The global market for RFID
357 should progress, driven by a democratization process of RFID technology, with a decrease in
358 the tag cost, together with the setting up of infrastructures able to compete with the high
359 volume of RFID tags. It is foreseen that in 2024 the sales of RFID tags will have the

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360 following figures for several applications in different sectors such as Medical (5%), transport
361 of individuals (21%), consuming products (5%), logistic on land and sea (6%), airports (1%),
362 fabrication (3%), leisure and sport (1%), retail sale (27%) others (4%) (Raghu & Harrop,
363 2013). On the other hand, research prospects should continue in the goal of improving RFID
364 tags such as the readability. Test showed that the RFID signal would be affected by metals,
365 cardboard, glass, and even by folding and stretching. This can be a critical issue if the

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366 cardboard or food packaging to which the tag is attached is humidified or torn (Ruiz-Garcia &
367 Lunadei, 2011).

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368 3.4 Cold Chain Applications
369 RFID can be used in a large range of agrifood products. Some of the fields in which the

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370 technology may be implemented are: horticultural, meat, pig, fishery, dairy, bakery, and
371 beverages. RFID has been progressively developed in these fields of activities for traceability

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372 and for food chain monitoring. In all these sectors, the use of RFID becomes even more
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373 interesting not only for info tracking but for monitoring different parameters such as
374 temperature and freshness (Gandino et al., 2007). Another example is the use of RFID tags to
375 info track artisanal Italian cheese. The authors also used a web based system to make basic
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376 information available to consumers before and after purchase (Papetti et al., 2012). Similar
377 systems are put into practice for the other aforementioned products. Kong et al. (2009)
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378 worked on pig meet supply chain where the identification technology was used for
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379 establishing the safety of the chain. Abad et al. (2009) worked on the validation of the RFID
380 smart tag for real time monitoring of fish logistic chain. Another study was performed on
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381 smoked seafood product and RFID tag traceability (Grabacki, Ronchetti, Humphrey, &
382 Hedgepeth, 2007). Laniel et al. (2011) worked on the optimal positioning of an RFID antenna
383 in order to achieve full RFID readability inside a sea container with frozen food, foreseen to
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384 overcome damping of the RFID signal in the presence of water and ice. The authors tested
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385 two frequencies: 433 MHz and 915 MHz, and they found that 100% readability was obtained
386 with the 433 MHz antenna. Only 68% readability was obtained using the 915 MHz antenna.
387 Bernardi et al. (2008) worked on an anti-counterfeit mechanism for wine bottles to determine
388 their originality.

389 Shelf life and quality monitoring of food products are also important application sectors for
390 RFID due to the increasing demand for the good quality and safety of food products. Storage
391 time and temperature are the two main factors affecting food quality. RFID devices with a
392 sensor interface could be essential in that sector. Research have been carried out by several

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393 authors (Amador, Emond, & Nunes, 2009; Jedermann, Ruiz-Garcia, & Lang, 2009; Wang
394 Tingman, Zhang Jian, & Zhang Xiaoshuan, 2010; Wu et al., 2010). Various and different
395 applications in the agrifood sector indicate the progressive increase in popularity of RFID tag
396 systems and will continue rising in the coming years. Traceability, sensing abilities and
397 increase in efficiency are the key words for describing this development, and are discussed in
398 the next sections of the present work.

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399 4 Sensors and RFID sensor tags in food industry

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400 A sensor or biosensor can be defined as a component able to transform a physical quantity
401 which is difficult to measure into an easy to measure variable, usually an electrical

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402 characteristic (Lalauze, 2012). They are bridges connecting the outside analogue world with
403 the digital world. Sensors are usually made up of two components: a sensitive element and a
404 transducer (figure 6).

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406 Figure 6: Schematic depiction of a sensing system (Kalantar-zadeh, 2013).

407 The integration of sensors to RFID tags is a great advance and brings value added
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408 functionalities to RFID technology. Some of the most important applications of sensors
409 emerge in bio component sensing. Organic sensors exploit organic materials (bio materials) as
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410 sensing layers and/or components of transducers. Some examples of biosensors or organic
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411 molecules which may be of great interest are proteins (antibodies and enzymes), nucleic acids
412 (DNA and RNA), and natural and synthetic organic materials of various sizes and lengths
413 (hydrocarbons and polymers) (Kalantar-zadeh, 2013). RFID biosensor tags not only provide
414 sensing capabilities of mesurands such as temperature, and the monitoring of microbiological
415 activity in packaging headspace through food degradation markers, but also maintain the
416 basic identification functions as conventional RFID tags. Sensors may be embedded to
417 passive, semi-passive and active tags, either directly onto the antenna or connected to the
418 chip, with logging features to keep tract of measured quantities, as a function of time, or by

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419 recording predefined events (Ruhanen et al., 2008). The coupling of sensors such as time
420 temperature indicators (TTI), gas sensors, chemical sensors, humidity sensors to RFID for the
421 food industry increases the functionality of RFID tags and creates new concepts in research
422 fields, especially for improving traceability.

423 Up to date, markets for RFID sensor tags are still immature. Few manufacturers offer RFID
424 tags with sensing functionalities where most of them are temperature based. Nevertheless,

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425 some of them provide an interface for humidity sensors and other types of sensors (light,
426 pressure, weight, etc.). The leaders in this field of RFID are presented in table 3.

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428 Table 3: Market prospects for RFID tags. Adapted from Ruhanen et al. (2008).

Manufacturers Tag Frequency Type of tag Functionality description Other Remarks Country

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CAEN A927 - UHF semi- Monitors the temperature as a function of Battery lifetime is Italy
Temperature passive time over the whole supply chain of medical around 3 years The tag

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Logger products or perishable food items is ISO 18000- 6B
compliant

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Infratab Freshtime - Semi- Used for temperature monitoring of Compatible with ISO India
Tag passive perishable items. Tag programming can be UHF 18000-6B.

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RFID tag done and the tag can work independently. The Lifetime is from 1 day
tags include alerts on shelf life duration up to 3+ years

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temperature threshold violating and elapsed depending upon the
time alerts. More detailed information like battery and setup
history can be obtained via RFID queries

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KSW VarioSens - Semi- Temperature monitoring and comparing Tag is ISO 15693-3 Germany

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Microtec Basic passive temperatures with standard values. Storage of compliant
RFID HF related information. Possible reuse depending

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label on the application and measurement interval

Alien Battery 2.45 GHz Microwave The battery assisted tag can be interfaced with The tag includes USA
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Technology assisted Frequency any sensor. Standard version of this tag offers 220 mAh lithium
passive tag (MF) tag. a version comprising an onboard temperature battery, which provides
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sensor. In this sensor enabled version, the size many years of operation
of memory is 4 kB. Read/write range is
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reliable up to 30 m

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American Log-IC - Active HF Used as a watchdog in temperature-sensitive Reusable or disposable USA

Thermal RFID tag or temperature-regulated environments. The tag. The particularity of
Instruments tag allows monitoring the temperature as a this tag is that it is NFC
function of time. Programmable tag to display compliant and data can

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a warning light if the temperature is below a instantly be exported to
threshold value mobile phones

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Montalbanotec MTsens - HF RFID Temperature monitoring as a function of time. The tag is compatible Italy

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hnology smart label Reading can be performed at any time during with the standard RF-
lifetime. The tag acquires temperature data as ID ISO15693. The
a function of time. The data can be read any battery lifetime is at

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time during the life span of the device and least four months
also after battery exhaustion

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Savi Sensor tag 433 MHz Active Temperature and humidity monitoring of 4 years battery lifespan USA
RFID metal containers during transportation and with a working range of

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sensor tag storage. Other sensors such as light and shock 100 m
sensors are available and used to monitor the

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security and integrity of shipments. Real time
alarm is provided

Microstrain EmbedSense 125 kHz Passive

TETemperature monitoring up to 150C. Reading distances are USA
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RFID tag Designed for rotating machines, smart typically in the range of
structures and medical devices. Suitable for 25 to 50 mm
harsh environments
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Axcess Active sensor 315 MHz Active Temperature, humidity or radiation Operating life is around USA
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International family RFID tags monitoring and data saving. Person and 1-3 years and the range
vehicles identification depending on the is around 10 m
model

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Bioett Biosensor - Bar code Temperature monitoring as a function of time Electric signal of the Sweden
combined to sensor is modified
passive according to mesurand
RFID tag

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Evigia EV524 2.4 GHz Temperature, humidity and vibration Operational life of USA

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monitoring. Alarm alert when threshold battery is 2.5 years that
values are exceeded can reach 4 years with

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bigger long-life
package. 60 m reading
range

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Bisa Active tag 2.45 GHz Active tags Temperature monitoring. Other sensors may Reading range is China

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be included such as vibration sensor to detect between 30 to 50 m
vibrations and impacts. Acceleration can also
be measured

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G2 G2C501 - Active UHF Motion, temperature, security, shock, ISO24730-2 readers USA

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microsystems tag humidity, radiation or pressure monitoring compatible
with the appropriate sensor. Tag waking

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option included. Data storage on chip memory
or external memory
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Identec i-Q32T - Active UHF Temperature monitoring (internal or external Reading range up to USA
solutions tag temperature sensors) defined on fixed time 30 m for hand held
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intervals readers and up to 100 m

for fixed readers.
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Battery life over 6 years

Scanpaks TTB-434-01 434 MHz Active tag Light, pressure, temperature or weight sensor Reading distance of Canada
depending on models including tamper,

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battery level and shock sensors, with waking 100 m or more

up option

Oridao1 CROSS- 860-960 Passive tag Structural health monitoring, strain, vibration, Reading distance up to France

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RFID MHz corrosion, temperature, industrial process 100 m
control, pressure, Ph, level

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TagSys2 ARIO DM, 13.56 Active and Identification and traceability Tags are ISO18000 France
LinTRAK C MHz, 860- passive tag compliant

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960 MHz

Ela Innovation COIN T, RH 433 MHz Active tag Temperature, relative humidity sensor Reading distance of France

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Active3 80 m. Lifetime of 10

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years

Ela Innovation THINLINE 433 MHz Active tag Motion sensor Reading distance of France
Active3

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MOV 80 m. Lifetime of 4
years

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Tageos4 EOS-500 865-956 Passive tag Logistic, asset tracking and apparel Reading distance of 10 France

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MHz m. 100% paper based
and low cost
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429 http://www.oridao.com/
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430 http://www.tagsysrfid.com/en-EN/home
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431 http://www.ela.fr/
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432 http://www.tageos.com/

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433 4.1 Food quality monitoring systems

434 Intelligent packaging can be defined as the packaging that senses, communicates and
435 monitors the conditions of packed food in the objective of giving information about food
436 quality, safety and history of the products during transport and storage, beneficial for
437 consumers and food industry. Controlling temperature and detecting markers of food

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438 degradation such as carbon dioxide, ethanol and ethylene (Vergara et al., 2007) allow
439 maintaining food quality, or allow detecting food degradation in packaging. Sensors
440 developed for these applications are presented in the following paragraphs.

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441 Freshness indicators are sensors that monitor the quality of the food present in a packaging

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442 by reacting to changes in the packaging due to microbial growth or chemical changes in the
443 fresh food product. Microbiological activity may be assessed visually via reactions between
444 microbial growth metabolites and integrated indicators within the package. Freshness
445
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indicators can also be used as shelf life prediction for perishable products and are considered
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446 to be direct indicators of food quality. The principle used by Galagan et al. (2008) is based on
447 a color change of a fadable ink to time temperature control of food freshness. Rukchon et al.
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448 (2014) developed freshness indicators of chicken breast, where a total color difference of a
449 mixed-pH dye-based indicator was correlated with different carbon dioxide levels of skinless
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450 chicken breast. In addition of research activities performed by different authors on the subject,
451 the development of freshness indicators has been performed by different packaging
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452 companies. Fresh Tag, SensorQ, Raflatac, food sentinel system and Toxin Guard are all
453 involved in the development of these types of tags based on the colorimetric indicator using
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454 silver nanolayers, pH-sensing indicator, biosensors on barcodes and biosensors using films
455 respectively (Realini & Marcos, 2014). Freshness indicators (RipesenseTM) for detecting
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456 aromas to determine maturation of fruits were developed by Jenkins Group.

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457 Integrity indicators indicate any leakage in a package by monitoring the packaging
458 headspace. It can also be classified as indirect monitoring of food products. The information
459 that is provided by the integrity indicator is the time duration for which the package has been
460 opened. The label is activated by oxygen contact, for instance when the seal is broken. The
461 change that takes place most of the time is color based. Gas indicators are mainly used for
462 fulfilling the role of integrity indicators (Vanderroost et al., 2014). A commercial indicator for
463 leakage detection is the Ageless eye Mitsubishi Gas Chemical which detects a color change
464 from pink to blue, and is a reversible system (Realini & Marcos, 2014).

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465 Biosensors are able to monitor food quality in a specific way as they can detect the presence
466 of degradation molecules and might be designed in a tailored manner according to the type of
467 product being packed. Biosensors can be placed inside the food package or integrated into the
468 packaging material for the detection of potential molecules such as glucose, organic acids
469 (lactic and acetic acid), ethanol, volatile nitrogen compounds (ammonia), dimethylamine, and
470 trimethylamine, biogenic amines (histamine), carbon dioxide and sulfuric compounds. The

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471 biosensors that are currently being developed for intelligent packaging are to the prototype
472 level. For example, Food Sentinel System developed a sensor able to detect various microbial

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473 toxins by an irreversible color change of the indicator. Toxin Guard incorporates antibodies
474 into plastic packaging films. When antibodies encounter a target pathogen, the packaging

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475 material displays a clear visual signal (color change) that alerts the consumer (Ahvenainen,
476 2003). Bioett has developed a system based on a biosensor for temperature monitoring. It

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477 monitors the accumulated effect of temperature on products over time. Toxin Guard,
478 another biosensor based on the incorporation of antibodies into plastic films was developed
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479 by ToxinAlert Inc (Yam, T., & Miltz, 2005).

480 It should not be disregarded that the broad of food-borne infections is constantly changing
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481 over time. Most pathogens are under control but new ones have emerged. Hence, accurate,
482 online, in-situ sensing and analysis of contaminants, detection and identification of pathogens,
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483 and monitoring of post-processing food quality parameters are rapidly needed. Consequently,
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484 future trends in coupling biosensors to RFID technology are deeply foreseen.

485 Time Temperature Indicator (TTI): Temperature monitoring has long been used in supply
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486 chains, through the use of mechanical thermometers (glass bulbs filled with alcohol, vapor
487 pressure or liquid expansion, bimetallic blades or coils) and electronic (variable-resistance
488 sensor, thermocouples, semiconductor probes, integrated circuit for measuring temperature)
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489 thermometers (P. Taoukis et al., 2011). All these systems are the pioneers in the domain but
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490 since a couple of years, TTIs have emerged.

491 TTIs are typically small self-adhesive labels attached to food packaging or containers, used
492 for the monitoring of cold chain, by measuring and recording temperature to have the history
493 of the food product found in the package. These active smart labels are cheap and can be
494 used as a warning in case of temperature change for frozen and chilled foods (P. S. Taoukis &
495 Labuza, 1989; Vanderroost et al., 2014), which results in an irreversible modification of the
496 TTI sensor. These are due to mechanical, chemical, polymerization, pH change enzymatic or

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497 microbiological changes, and are usually expressed as a mechanical deformation, color
498 development, or color movement of the indicator. Thus, TTI gives information on whether a
499 threshold temperature has been exceeded over time and/or estimates the time a product has
500 exceeded the threshold temperature (record of product history). TTIs are also considered as
501 indirect indicators of food quality in intelligent packaging. No correlation between the TTI
502 response and the behavior of food exists but a single visual evaluation indicating the quality

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503 of the food products.

504 A non exhaustive list of TTI systems that are commercially available are represented in table

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505 4 (Realini & Marcos, 2014; P. Taoukis et al., 2011).

506

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507 Table 4: Commercially available time temperature indicators.

Company or product Reaction and Indicators Application

name

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Vitsab International Color change by enzymatic hydrolysis of a substrate Salads

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Traceo-Cryolog Microbial degradation of a substrate Salads and fruits

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Fresh-Check Polymerization of monomers Ham packaging

3M MonitorMark Running out of a blue compound on blotters Perishable food products, vaccines

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Innolabel Timestrip Change in color from white to blue Fresh food and vegetables, blood
temperature monitoring

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CoolVu Food Color change from silver to white. The higher the storage Food industry, pharmaceuticals and
temperature, the faster the fading vaccines

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CheckPoint Color change due to enzymatic reaction Seafood products

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510 4.2 Food quality monitoring systems interfaced with RFID tags
511 TTI interfaced with RFID: An important advance in the RFID technology is the integration
512 of TTI with RFID tags. The combination of the two elements results in a better monitoring
513 and management of the supply chain. It also increases cost saving due to less product wasted.
514 RFID coupled with TTIs are able to record information about temperature at constant time
515 intervals and facilitate the management by recording data independently, which in turn

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516 improve the supply chain management. This progress results in a more convenient and precise
517 temperature tracking system than traditional temperature management performed by

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518 thermometers or compact temperature loggers. These were done for various perishable foods
519 particularly chilled and cold fish (P. S. Taoukis & Labuza, 1989), dairy products

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520 (Shellhammer & Singh, 1991), meat and poultry and frozen fruit and vegetables. Research
521 activities performed on this subject are given in table 5.

522 The advantages of this coupling are:

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524 More precision than traditional temperature measuring systems;
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525 The ability to record the history of the cold chain;

526 The ability to provide real time information with the coupling of the system to
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527 GPS and mobile networks;

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528 And the withdrawal of manual operation decreasing labor cost (Atsushi &
529 Kentaro, 2006; Kumari et al., 2015).
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530 However, it is important to ensure the readability of the RFID tags inside containers, pallets
531 and boxes. As specified previously, radio waves being absorbed by water and ice contents,
532 and reflected by metallic surfaces, can be a critical issue. In spite of this, TTI RFID systems
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533 ensure a proper control which contributes to the adequate transportation and storage for the
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534 produce optimum condition.

535

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536 Table 5: Examples of research performed on TTIs.

Application Description Reference

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Shipping trial conducted for A comparison was made between traditional temperature data loggers and RFID systems. (Amador et al., 2009).
temperature mapping of The experience showed that RFID systems had a superior performance

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pineapples pallets

Cold chain monitoring Temperature sensors were embedded with RFID tags (Atsushi & Kentaro, 2006).

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Cold chain monitoring Monitoring of a cold chain of frozen foods (production, transportation, storage and (Gras, 2006)
delivery), by making use of semi-passive and active RFID tags coupled to temperature

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RFID for temperature Traceability and temperature monitoring of sea food products, dairy products, beverages, (Costa et al., 2012)
recording horticultural produce

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Real time monitoring of food TTI RFID tags coupled to ground positioning system (GPS) and mobile communication (Hu et al., 2013)
products system which provide the real time information about food products

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Monitoring of environmental Use of RFID combined with online decision support systems for real-time monitoring. (Wang, Kwok, & Ip, 2010)
conditions Prediction of the shelf-life of the products can be performed according to the temperature
data received from the sensor tags
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539 Humidity sensors: Humidity sensors determine the amount of water vapor present in an
540 atmosphere (Chen & Lu, 2005). The use of this type of sensor with RFID tags might be
541 beneficial in several sectors namely the agrifood sector, the medical sector and sectors dealing
542 with perishable/vulnerable goods to environmental conditions. In the objective of performing
543 relative humidity monitoring, and transmitting the humidity records to the user, humidity
544 sensors have been developed and interfaced with RFID tags. Oprea et al. (2007) developed

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545 capacitive humidity sensors from polyethylene-naphthalate and polyimide on flexible RFID
546 labels obtaining a good sensitivity of 21 fF/%RH between 20% and 90% of relative humidity.

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547 Kim et al. (2009) worked on nano-pored anodic aluminum oxide to be interfaced to RFID tags
548 of different thicknesses in the objective of increasing the sensitivity to relative humidity.

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549 Capacitive measurements were performed and high sensitivity values ranging
550 from 42 fF/%RH to 483 fF/%RH were obtained depending on the sensor thickness and
551 voltage applied. However, Chen and Lu (2005) specify that long exposure to relative humidity

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552 may cause degradation of the sensitivity (due to widening of pores) and a drift in capacitance
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553 characteristics may occur. Salmern et al. (2014) developed a humidity sensor based on
554 polyimide substrate to be coupled to UHF RFID tags. In their work, they used serpentine
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555 electrodes printed on the polyamide substrate giving a sensitivity of 100 fF/%RH, which is
556 significantly higher than the sensitivity of 4.5 fF/%RH obtained by Rivadeneyra et al. (2014)
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557 who used the same sensor, but having interdigital electrodes. A humidity sensor connected to
558 the chip of a smart tag has been used for real time traceability and cold chain monitoring for
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559 food application by Abad et al., (2009). The system has been tested with seafood products
560 found in polystyrene boxes. The RFID smart tag offers the possibility to read the temperature
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561 and humidity without opening the boxes which preserve the packaging integrity.

562 Oxygen and carbon dioxide indicators: Gas indicators provide an alternative, non invasive
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563 approach to traditional destructive techniques to assess packaging integrity such as leaking
564 seals in modified atmosphere packaging. They provide information about altered gas
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565 concentration such as oxygen (Vu & Won, 2013). RFID coupled to an oxygen sensor was
566 used for monitoring the integrity of packaging by developing an oxygen sensing luminophore
567 and an ultra violet led for generating luminescence. The change in color of the sensing
568 luminophore is directly related to a change in oxygen concentration, and the whole system is
569 connected to a RFID tag (Martnez-Olmos et al., 2013). Jang et al. (2014) worked on the
570 development of an oxygen indicator having a long life span to evaluate how well oxygen

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571 scavengers/absorbers removed all oxygen within a package and for monitoring package
572 leakage. The oxygen indicators are activated by a difference in pressure and used in intelligent
573 packaging applications. Espinosa et al. (2010) developed gas sensitive coatings manufactured
574 from metal oxide layers (tin oxide or tungsten oxide), onboard of a RFID flexible tag, in the
575 objective of monitoring climatic fruit during transport and vending. Carbon dioxide sensors
576 have also been developed, where the degree of fermentation of vegetable products during

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577 storage and distribution was detected by a carbon dioxide absorbent and a chemical dye in a
578 polymeric film (Hong & Park, 2000). Some other examples are the interaction of carbon

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579 dioxide and humidity with amino group for carbon dioxide sensing at room relative humidity
580 (Stegmeier et al., 2009). Endres et al. (1999) developed a capacitive carbon dioxide sensor

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581 system which suppresses the relative humidity effects. In the studies of Stegmeier et al.
582 (2009) and Endres et al. (1999), the sensing layer used is heteropolysiloxane which is a
583 synthetic polymer.

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585 the detection and quantification of ethanol and ethylene are important for food packaging
586 applications. Sensors such as resistive metal oxide sensors have been developed into micro-
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587 electromechanical systems ensuring low power consumptions and reduction in size, but
588 unfortunately, the system drawback is the lack of specificity of the sensor (Ruiz-Garcia &
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589 Lunadei, 2011). By integrating directly the sensor (based on Pt-doped, Au-doped tin oxide
590 and Au-doped tungsten oxide) to the RFID reader, onboard sensing for monitoring fruit
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591 quality can be performed (Vergara et al., 2007). Potyrailo et al. (2013) developed a gas and
592 vapor sensor with self correction of uncontrolled fluctuations of temperature, without the need
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593 of integrating a separate uncoated reference sensor or a separate temperature sensor.

594 Significant advances have been made in miniaturization and in the development of low-cost
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595 chemical sensors with alteration of optical, amperometric, potentiometric and conductometric
596 properties, detecting for instance potassium ion concentrations. These sensors are directly
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597 implemented on RFID tags (M. D. Steinberg, Kassal, et al., 2014). Electrochemical detection
598 of volatile chemicals has been developed and stands on the resistance changes of the RFID tag
599 circuitry, inducing changes in the frequency and amplitude of the output signal. The sensor
600 used is polymer/carbon black based (18 wt%/82 wt%) that detects toluene (Fiddes & Yan,
601 2013). Zampolli et al. (2008) reported on a chemical sensor based on metal oxide semi
602 conductors for gas detection, coupled to flexible RFID tags, having ultra-low-power

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603 consumptions. One recent study for monitoring acidic and basic volatile concentration is on
604 the development of a pH-electrode based wireless passive sensor. The principle is based on
605 the change in voltage of the pH-electrode with changes in pH of the hydrogel used as sensor,
606 upon detection of ammonia and acetic acid (Bhadra et al., 2015). Other smart tags with
607 chemical sensors have been studied and developed for potentiometric responses (Kassal et al.,
608 2013), conductometric responses (M. D. Steinberg, ura, et al., 2014), optoelectronic

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609 interface (I. M. Steinberg & Steinberg, 2009) and photometer based (M. D. Steinberg, Kassal,
610 et al., 2014). Potyrailo and Morris in 2007 worked on an original concept. They used

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611 chemically sensitive films of Nafion (family of perfluorosulfonated polymers) coated onto a
612 conventional passive RFID tag working at 13.56 MHz. The impedance and frequency shift of

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613 the signal from the RFID antenna was measured. The direct use of the sensor on the RFID
614 antenna ensures a low cost chemically sensitive tag and no special tags have to be designed to
615 be used with the sensor unlike other approaches.

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617 develop low cost tags. Few studies are based on this principle as it degrades the RFID
618 performance, with a potential loss of the basic principle of RFID (traceability). However, if
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619 the information transfer is guaranteed, the development of such smart RFID tags would be a
620 great improvement. Bhattacharyya et al. (2010) use the RFID tag antenna itself as a sensor, by
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621 making use of the knowledge concerning the degradation of the RFID performance in close
622 proximity to metals and fluids. They focused on the tag antenna based sensing criterion to
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623 map a change in the level of liquid in a glass to changes in the electrical properties of the
624 RFID tag antenna. As water is a polar dielectric, the molecules tend to orient themselves so as
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625 to cancel out most of the incoming electric field from the RFID reader. In this context, the
626 usual inconvenience being the degradation of the RFID performance due to water is used as a
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627 possible advantage to achieve a sensor. A displacement sensor based on the effects of
628 deformation on the backscattered power has also been studied (Bhattacharyya, Floerkemeier,
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629 & Sarma, 2009). Nearly the same principle is used by Potyrailo et al. (2007). They used a
630 sensor coated antenna for chemical detection. The detection principle remains the same,
631 which is a change in the backscattered signal of the RFID antenna, resulting from a change in
632 its electrical properties (impedance amplitude and frequency shift).

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633 4.3 Application of RFID sensor tags
634 Diversification of products, large scale production and increasing data for distribution
635 emphasizes the applications of RFID sensor tags. As specified in this review, one of the pros
636 of the technology is the tremendous amount of data that can be processed in a minimum
637 period of time, increasing efficiency, reducing thus waste and cost. Coupled to sensors, the
638 major applications of RFID sensor tag technology would be in the food industry for

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639 monitoring packaging headspace. As such, it is well known that food degradation markers are
640 released when products reach their "end of life" and are no longer consumable (M. Castro-

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641 Girldez, Fito, & Fito, 2010; Marta Castro-Girldez, Botella, Toldr, & Fito, 2010). Very
642 often, these markers are released after the expiry date of the food products. Monitoring these

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643 food degradation markers would bring precious information about the quality of food
644 products namely green and ripe fruits, and expired food products. Furthermore, it would be an
645 effective way to know the efficiency of packaging designed in a tailored manner (Realini &
646
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Marcos, 2014) on food products, and the effects of antimicrobial agents (Duncan, 2011;
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647 Mascheroni, Guillard, Gastaldi, Gontard, & Chalier, 2011) on food products.

648 Moreover, fish, meat, vegetables and fruits require specific conditions of temperature (cold
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649 chain monitoring) and relative humidity for their conservation and transport (Kumari et al.,
650 2015). Sensors would help in the objective of having optimum conditions for their
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651 preservation, and simultaneously provide large data treatment capacity through "classical
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652 RFID" functioning.

653 4.4 Technical challenges

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654 The integration of sensors on RFID tags is, as it can be imagined, a challenge and difficulties
655 may arise especially in the food sector. The use of polymers as sensors may be a bottleneck as
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656 it should respect norms and directives in the public health sector. Therefore, special attention
657 is required for the population suffering from food allergies (for example against particular
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658 natural polymers) during the research and development phase. Thus, another question may be
659 raised, which is about the integration of the RFID sensor tags in the packaging. How should
660 the tag be placed, how should the antenna be designed, how should the chip be fixed and how
661 should the sensors be integrated within these elements. All these technical challenges should
662 be studied to avoid direct contact of food products with the whole RFID element.

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663 Cost is a main hurdle in the widespread use of RFID technology. It should be kept as low as
664 possible so as not to impact the final cost of food products. A high cost would not be
665 appropriate as it would lead to a modification in consumers buying habits. The cost of
666 passive RFID tags at the early beginning was around 50 cents (Ahvenainen, 2003; Ruiz-
667 Garcia & Lunadei, 2011). Nowadays, the cost of a passive 96-bit EPC tag (chip and antenna
668 mounted on a substrate) has been decreased down to 5 to 10 U.S cents (Roberts, 2006). If the

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669 tag is embedded in a thermal transfer label on which companies can print a bar code, the price
670 rises to 15 cents and up. However, most companies that sell RFID tags do not quote prices

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671 because pricing is based on volume, the amount of memory on the tag and the packaging of
672 the tag (whether it is encased in plastic or embedded in a label, for instance), whether the tag

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673 is active or passive and much more. The objective of the RFID sensor tags is not to exceed
674 these costs, but in the best of cases, reduce them, regarding the large number of products that
675 can be equipped with this new technology.

676
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The environment is also of main interest as the production and use of RFID tags grows. There
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677 is a need for recycling programs for the RFID sensor tags. In addition, when tags are attached
678 to products and improperly removed, the impact on the recycling processes could be
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679 substantial. Materials such as adhesives, chips, pieces of metal from the antenna and
680 conductive inks can affect the recycling process of paper, plastic and metal (Foley, 2006;
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681 Thomas, 2008). Thus, materials used during the research and development phase should be
682 one of the most important considerations, and the use of low-impacting elements is crucial. In
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683 addition, the collect of the RFID sensor tags should be facilitated after their disposal by
684 consumers.
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685 5 Conclusion
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686 RFID is a very promising and rapidly developing technology, improving the management of
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687 information flow within supply chains, bringing quality and security in the agrifood sector.
688 They present numerous advantages over traditional labels and barcodes and are becoming
689 progressively popular. The increase in applications, together with the improvement and
690 optimization of the RFID tags, foreshadow a decrease in the cost of tags, resulting in an
691 increase in market prospects.

692 The reasons for RFID versatility and logistic advancements are attributed to the possibility of
693 coupling diverse typologies of radio frequency smart tags to different environmental sensors

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694 to ensure traceability and thus, food quality and safety. Different types of sensors have been
695 developed followed by a market implantation. They are TTI sensors, food packaging integrity
696 sensors such as gas sensors, among others.

697 According to the present study, it is noticeable that RFID coupled to sensors has a great
698 potential and may not only meet our needs and demand for safe food products, but also reduce
699 food waste. In the wake of this review, sensor coated passive UHF RFID tags could be

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700 developed as an applicative having a good compromise between cost, communication rate,
701 and VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) detection. The sensing principle could be based on

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702 the combined effects of sensor coating together with the effects of markers of food
703 degradation on the dielectric properties of the sensor, which modify the electrical properties

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704 of the antenna according to type of markers. The addition of the sensor results in an added
705 value to conventional passive of active RFID tags.

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708
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709 6 Funding sources
710 Agence National de la Recherche (ANR) was the funding source.

711 7 Acknowledgement
712 Authors thank the "Agence Nationale de la Recherche" (a French funding agency) for funding

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713 this study within the framework of NextGenPack project.

714

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