RFID Enhances Meat Safety Management with Full Traceability

The current technical management level of the livestock slaughter industry is lagging. A comprehensive regulatory system covering all stages from livestock breeding, slaughtering, processing, circulation, to consumption has not yet been formed, posing significant risks to meat quality and safety. A meat quality traceability system incorporates breeding, slaughtering, meat processing, transportation, wholesale, and retail into the entire online supervision of the meat supply chain. This system allows government regulators to remotely manage and supervise the necessary aspects with limited personnel. For consumers, it also enables verification and comparison when purchasing meat products.

System Objectives

System Components

The meat quality safety traceability management system consists of RFID electronic tags, antennas, readers, sensors for detecting external environmental parameters, databases, and corresponding service networks.

Workflow

Breeding Stage: After the livestock is born, they will wear RFID electronic ear tags that link to their lineage information. During breeding, feed information, vaccination details, medication usage, and environmental data are written into the ear tags using RFID handheld devices and uploaded to the food safety platform data center.

Slaughtering Stage: Prior to slaughter, three certificates are checked, and product inspection is conducted. Qualified meat is bound with RFID traceability tags. At the factory exit, the meat code obtained and the downstream retailer's RFID identity card information acquired by the RFID traceability machine are automatically linked. The machine also connects to an electronic scale to obtain weight and prints a transaction certificate with traceability information.

Wholesale Stage (Rail Transaction System): In the rail transaction system, the meat's traceability tag is read and automatically linked with rail hook information. After weighing, the upstream and downstream operators' information is associated, and a transaction certificate is printed. Downstream retailers, group buyers, and individuals obtain the wholesale market transaction certificate in the wholesale meat market.

Retail Stage: In retail terminals such as farmers' markets and convenience meat shops, special electronic scales read RFID tag data before weighing each cut of pork. The sales receipt printed can mark the meat identification code, and each weighing data is uploaded to the server of each farmers' market management entity. In supermarkets and large stores, the traceability machine can conveniently connect with the government data center for record-keeping, converting RFID meat tags into low-cost QR code stickers provided to consumers as retail traceability certificates.

Traceability Management: During the meat product transaction process, operators or final consumers receive meat traceability tags, including traceability codes. Operators or consumers can query the quality information traceability to understand the breeding site, slaughtering and processing site, inspection and quarantine details of the purchased pork.

Government Supervision: Under the provincial, municipal, and county-level business management platforms sharing a common data center, government department staff (commerce, agriculture, industry, quality inspection, health, etc.) can access the system through the internet based on their permissions to view the operation status of the entire process and the meat products related to their departments.