South Korea Aims To Develop Enhanced Food Tracking System

South Korea aims to develop a new food tracking system that could generate up to 12 trillion won (US$10.3 billion) worth of new business opportunities every year, a state-run research institute said Wednesday.

Citing the Korea Food Research Institute (KFRI), Yonhap news agency reported that the "u-Food System" to be developed by 2014 will be designed to follow and record the condition of food products from the farm to consumers.

Some 12.5 billion won project includes the creation of working testbeds that make extensive use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, ubiquitous sensor networks (USN) and other advanced information technology (IT) products.

Such measures allow the food, distribution and electronics industry to invest money and resources in developing related products like refrigerators, storage facilities and a wide range of electronic sensors and communication devices.

"In effect, the RFID-USN combination can allow consumers and food distributors to know the condition of the food they have in storage or want to buy, and prevent people from eating products that have gone bad," said Kim Byeong-sam, head of distribution research at KFRI.

This can be done by keeping track of the production date, following temperature readings in the distribution process which can spoil food prematurely, and developing a sensor designed to directly check the food.

He said if the system does become fully operational it can greatly enhance consumer knowledge, create a whole new market for related household appliances and revolutionize the distribution process in the local food industry, which is valued at some 107 trillion won .

"Despite greater use of cold storage facilities, 20 percent of fresh food is lost before reaching consumers, while around 4 percent of all processed food is thrown away due to poor distribution practices," he said.

Kim said that the RFID-USN system can generate new demand for smart refrigeration units that can keep track of all the food in it, alert owners if a food will go bad and relay this information to managers who can take appropriate measures.

"Similar systems are being pursued in countries like the United States and Germany but since South Korea has a strong IT infrastructure, it can easily become a leader in this relatively new field," the chief researcher said.

He said that once the system is created it will be handled over to the private sector.

"Initially, the system can be used by large department stores and discount outlets that handle the necessary volume or relatively expensive products, but can be expanded to smaller shops and retailers," he said.

Source: Bernama.com