McDonald's, Other Companies Test TAG Sensors' RFID Temperature Loggers

McDonald's, Other Companies Test TAG Sensors' RFID Temperature Loggers

A European McDonald's restaurant operator is one of several companies piloting an RFID-based solution designed to provide real-time temperature and location data regarding such items as fresh food, pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive products, from the point of harvesting or manufacture to the consumer. The system, provided by Norwegian company TAG Sensors, features a data logger consisting of a Near Field Communication (NFC) high-frequency (HF) or EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) passive RFID chip, as well as a temperature sensor, a clock, an antenna and a printed battery. The full solution also includes RFID readers and printers, cloud-based software and a smartphone app. Companies like the European McDonald's restaurant operator can use TAG Sensors' solution not only to identify where goods are located (by reading the tags throughout the supply chain), but also to learn the temperatures to which the tagged goods have been exposed, and when, in order to identify any discrepancies before a product reaches a consumer.