Hawaii working to link its food chain

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture will rollout a three-year pilot project this month to track and trace tomatoes and other produce using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The system uses microchips with paper-thin antennae stuck onto produce boxes that emit radio waves when scanned.

While the technology is already being used by a few supermarkets and farms across the nation, Hawaii would be the first state to test RFID from farm to market in hopes of improving food safety.

Sandra Lee Kunimoto, chairwoman of the Hawaii Board of Agriculture, said the ability to determine where food comes from and where it has been distributed will become even more important as the food supply continues to be globalized.

In the event of a recall, the state wants to be able to trace a product to the farm of origin and identify where inventories were sent, all within a few minutes.

The state said the system will help improve quality and freshness as well as create a database of all produce being shipped and sold.

Four farms across Hawaii ‘ from a small farm on the Big Island to a 2,000-acre multi-crop operation on Oahu ‘ will soon tag boxes and pallets of everything from lettuce to strawberries.

John Ryan, administrator for the program at the state Agriculture Department, said he hopes that costs will eventually come down to a point where RFID would be adopted by many of the 5,000 farms in Hawaii, and beyond.

‘Our goal here really is to develop a model that hopefully many other states can use,’ he said.

Ryan said fruits and vegetables could one day be tagged with tiny RFID labels with ID numbers that would allow consumers to access information through the state’s online database.

The state is partnering with Motorola Inc., Lowry Computer Products Inc. and GlobeRanger Inc. The state is also working with the University of Hawaii to develop bio-sensors that could test for contaminants, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The technology dates to World War II, when Britain put transponders in Allied aircraft to help radar crews distinguish them from German fighters. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart mandated that suppliers radio tag all crates and cartons, giving RFID a major boost.