FOOD TRACEABILITY: Shrimp tracked from farm to table

The Nation - 9 September, 2005

Thailand is on the move to ensure the total safety of shrimps from its farms, no matter where in the world the consumer's dining table happens to be. Through the food-traceability project set up with collaboration of government ministries, two major shrimp manufacturers have been working on a pilot project to make it possible for consumers to check the origin of shrimp products using traceability software together with RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.

The two pioneers are Chanthaburi Frozen Food Co., Ltd. and Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited, agro-industrial and food conglomerates in Thailand. The traceability project has been formed by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry with support from related organizations such as the Fishery Department and the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).
       
The Project not only aims to ensure safety but also to create confidence among consumers overseas, especially the United States and Japan, paving the way for Thailand towards the European market. The use of these technologies ensures a safe line for the industry when it comes to exporting the marine creatures to countries where food safety standards are set very high by law.

        
At this stage, Thailand exports about 350,000 tonnes of shrimp a year, making the industry one of the country's major food products. It generates a large portion of export revenue and is vital to the nation's economy.
       
Located in Chanthaburi, a province in the east of the country, Chanthaburi Frozen Food has decided to implement traceability software that will work in line with RFID at one of its three factories. While the traceability software is recording every detail of the shrimps, RFID will be implemented all the way along the process line, from fresh products arriving at manufacturing plants through to the finished products. Processes include receiving, cleaning, beheading, sizing, peeling, cooking, freezing, packaging and storage.
       
Paibool Dusadeevuthikul, Managing Director of Chanthaburi Frozen Food Co., Ltd. said that the company plans to start the pilot in December. He said that it would take about six months to find out if the shrimp products can really be traced from process to process all the way back to origin. If the trial works, the company will expand the use of both the traceability system and RFID to its other two factories.
       

The company's total exports from its three factories averages about 6,000 tonnes to 7,000 tonnes per year.
       
While Chanthaburi Frozen Food has been using RFID in processes from fresh to finished products, Charoen Pokphand Foods has initially divided the implementation into two phases. The first is to use RFID in processes related to fresh shrimp and the second is to use the technology in processes that produce finished products.
       
Praderm Chotisuparach, executive vice president of Charoen Pokphand Foods' Computer Office, said that the company has already started the first phase, which will be completed in December. The company's aim is not only to collect all data related to shrimps but also to trace back details of the manufacturing processes.

He said that the project in phase two, which will focus on cooked products, is aimed to enhance its efficiency. Since its manufacturing operation is large, the company has spent about Bt 4 million in the preliminary phase on RFID, traceability software, hardware and network systems. More than 95 per cent of its output is exported to the US, Japan and Australia.
       
Companies in the initiative are IE Technology, an RFID application developer; IBM Thailand; and FXA Group. IE Technology will implement the RFID systems while IBM will work on the middleware that enables the RFID system to communicate with a software database at the back end.
       
To complete the traceability process, the FXA Group is developing new software to manage the flow of RFID information.
       
FXA is a food-industry software firm that has created Web-based, data-tracing software enabling agricultural-product exporters to electronically collect and trace all data related to the processing of their products.
       
Suchalee Pongprasert

The Nation