An Efficient and Guaranteed Cold-Chain Logistics for Temperature-Sensitive Foods: Applications of RFID and Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this article, we propose a system with RFID and sensor networks to guarantee the keeping quality of low-temperature logistics. 3G network and GPS transportations are incorporated to this system to create a full-time monitoring system and all the processing will be transparent to the customers so that it could be a keeping-quality guarantee to the customers as well as a good strategy for differentiated marketing. This system can be connected with the customers' system so that all the processing, storage, and transportation temperatures can be sent to the customers through extranet and WEB server of suppliers. The customers' system can judge whether temperature data is normal or not before the foods receive. Owing to the fact that all the RFID tags and readers can be reused and not expensive at all, this system is very practical to be applied in the cold-chain logistics. A format of data exchange needs to be standardized in the future for broad applications.