July 5, 2004 Traceability System for Agricultural Products using RF-ID and Mobile Devices Koji SUGAHARA Dept. of Information Science and Technology National Agricultural Research Center, Japan

Background of the development Food safety problems in Japan BSE (beef), Residual pesticide (vegetable), Deceptive labeling of food products, ... More consumers have been interested in food safety. Establishing food traceability Needs to improve reliability of food production and distribution processes Risk management in the accidents on food products Development of food traceability systems Urgent national projects by the government (MAFF)

Virtually Identified Produce System (VIPS) A basic scheme of web-based traceability system National Food Research Institute

SEICA

Integrated traceability system for agricultural products Production process management system On-site data input using mobile phone and PDA Easy input method to select the item menus Distribution process management system Correct identification of product lots based on RF-ID Relationship of lot ID in dividing and mixing lots Web-based remote database system -- VIPS Product information disclosure system Displaying each product’s data to consumers - VIPS Utilizing ID labels, barcodes, and RF-ID tags

Displays on a mobile phone (on-site inputting) Inputting records about farm works and agro-material applications (pesticides, fertilizers, machines, ..) A display on a PC browser (inputting the schedules) Production process management system for agriculture, “AFAMA” JAITEA and NARC http://www.afama.ne.jp/

For PDA For PC Input Diary data display Farm field map GIS-based farm diary system Available for using PDA and PC http://riss.narc.affrc.go.jp/resources.html

Farmers, carriers, retailers, and consumers can refer each product’s production and distribution data. Linkage based on product ID Production Process DB Distribution Process DB Production data Distribution data RF-ID Farm Home cultivation harvest shipping transporting sorting delivery sales Integrated traceability system using RF-ID Linking different DBs based on product ID of RF-ID tags

A case of the system experiments Fruit traceability system project By Yamagata Prefectural Government, since 2003 Items: Pear (Nov.), Strawberry (Feb.), Cherry (Jun.) Cooperative partnership Farmers, a wholesale market, a co-op store, and consumers in Yamagata Prefecture For sales at the store Internet-connected terminals(PC) with RF-ID readers For home delivery　 Pasting 2D-barcode & URL labels to the products Browsing with web-accessible mobile phones or PC

Mobile phone Inputting the production data by a farmer By accessing “AFAMA” with a mobile phone

“m-chip” by Hitachi Ltd. Each of these chips has unique ID. RF-ID chip and tag coated with PET PDA & connecting RF-ID reader 2D-barcode & URL printed label The barcode codes the same URL string. RF-ID tag (barcode label), and RF-ID reader Recording each product’s data on the distribution process

RF-ID tag A RF-ID reader and a tag attached to a box Recording relationship of the fruit lot ID and the box ID in box packing of pear fruits

Each product’s web page for consumers RF-ID tag Each product’s web page for consumers Shipping strawberries from the market Attaching RF-ID tags to the boxes, URL labels to the packs.

Subjects of development Identification of product lots Making relationship of lot ID in dividing or mixing lots Automation system to attach and read RF-ID tags More efficient data input on each of fields and crops Linkage among different databases Distributed DBs and data exchange systems Web service to refer products’ data among the DBs Effective application of RF-ID Reducing the operational costs RAM type --> Reuse of boxes and attached RF-ID tags Improving efficiency to check products’ ID and data ROM type --> Faster reading ID and recording to the DB