A wireless sensor for food quality detection by UHF RFID passive tags

In this paper, we present a novel wireless sensor for the detection of food quality. The main idea is to integrate the sensing capability into UHF RFID tags thanks to the relation between physical read-range and permittivity of object in that we labeled RFID tags. From the knowledge in variation of food permittivity in function to time by experimental characterization, it is possible to detect the contamination time from which the food becomes improper for consumption based on the measurement of read-range with designed sensing tags. This low-cost UHF RFID passive sensor was designed and experimentally tested on beef with the same storage conditions in supermarket. The tendency agreement between experimental and simulation results show the potential of this technique for real-world applications in food traceability.