Application of RFID tags for the overall traceability of products in cheese industries

The industrial sector of cheese production with specific quality protection occupies a relevant position in the industrial context of the European Union. In order for the sector to improve the competitiveness, solutions with emphasis in technological innovations should be done which increases the automation and quality control in the productive process. Moreover, the laws regulating the food industry in Europe establish that "the food traceability in all the production, transformation and distribution stages has to be guaranteed". Nowadays, the sector has no a procedure that exhaustively guarantees a proper traceability throughout the cheese ripening due to the fact that the surrounded conditions such as humidity, temperature, product handling (turning) and mold growing avoid the individual labeling of the products. Is for this that the production and quality control are performed by batches and the data storage is doing manually by the company personnel. This paper deals with the possibility of carrying out an individual and by batches quality control of the product in cheese industries. By means of RFID tags a complete traceability is performed improving the cheese fabrication process monitoring and production control.