RFID in highly perishable food supply chains – Remaining shelf life to supplant expiry date?

RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) has been proposed as a leading technology that could help reduce wastage in perishable food supply chains. This is due to their cost-effective ability to reliably identify tagged items as well as gather information on their ambient conditions through appropriate sensors. We model and study the utility of sensor-enabled RFID-generated item-level information in a highly perishable food supply chain from several perspectives including the distributor, retailer and consumer. With specific focus on expiry date and remaining shelf-life, we develop conditions under which the incorporation of RFID could benefit distributors, retailers and consumers. We also consider RFID investment decision in a highly perishable food supply chain.