Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

It’s well known that temperature-detecting active RFID tags have extreme value with perishable goods transportation, but a new study delves into microclimates, which indicates subtle differences of temperature in different parts of the same pallet. The Aim Global story looks at the IT ROI implications and whether it could change the business case for active tags.

“Each link in the cold chain must have the ability to reject partial shipments based on temperature data. This could make it either more expensive for the supplier (because some goods are now being rejected that had previously been accepted) or less expensive (because whole shipments are not rejected because of a single temperature reading). In either case, there would be a financial incentive to more closely monitor temperature and other critical conditions,” the story reported. “Customer refusals or charge-backs for less-than-fresh goods might provide an incentive for processors to pressure growers/packers to tag individual cases so that improper handling at the beginning of the supply chain does not adversely affect a processor’s or distributor’s downstream revenues.”