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Appendix

Anti-liquid RFID tag: the state of the art

Summary of the current state of the art in source tagging of wet and liquid products, with references to the sources at the bottom of this page.

The source-tagging problem for liquid and wet products has now largely been solved

Traditional security stickers (EAS) and RFID tags always struggled with liquids and metal packaging, because water absorbs radio waves and blocks the signal. Through technological innovations and specific product developments, this problem has now been tackled effectively:

  • Special ‘On-Liquid’ and ‘Anti-Liquid’ RFID tags[1]
  • Optimised placement and flag tags[2]
  • Sector-specific solutions (such as BottleID)[3]
  • Combination of EAS and RFID[4]

As a result, supermarkets, drugstores and distribution centres can now receive wet products straight from the factory (‘shelf-ready’), without store staff having to apply stickers by hand.[5]

The source-tagging problem has also been solved successfully for meat products

Fresh meat and pre-packaged meat products are among the most theft-prone product groups in supermarkets. Because meat has a very high moisture and fat content and is often packed in metallised protective films (MAP packaging), traditional security stickers long remained unreliable here.[6], [7]

Major packaging producers and retail security companies have solved this with the following techniques:

  • Integration into the cardboard sleeve or film (Coveris & Checkpoint)[8], [9], [10]
  • Microwave- and food-safe RF labels[11]
  • Special RFID solutions for fresh-food chains (RFreshID)[12], [13], [14], [6]

Large supermarket chains such as Albert Heijn and Lidl are currently rolling out (visible and invisible) anti-theft protection on a large scale on premium meats, steaks and chicken fillets. Thanks to source tagging, store staff no longer have to apply these stickers by hand; the products arrive fully ‘shelf-ready’ from the distribution centre.[15], [16], [2], [7]

At product level, the price is very manageable

On balance, it actually delivers the retail sector considerable cost savings. The investment is split into the direct cost per tag and the total savings across the chain (the return on investment). Although a package with a built-in tag costs a fraction of a cent more to produce than one without, source tagging yields substantial financial benefits.

For a supermarket, the payback period (break-even point) of such an integrated system typically lies between 12 and 24 months.[17]

Sources

  1. [1]RFID Label — On-liquid RFID labels & liquid interference
  2. [2]Checkpoint Systems — Source tagging made easy
  3. [3]Checkpoint Systems — BottleID
  4. [4]EAM — What is source tagging?
  5. [5]Checkpoint Systems — Source tagging (NL)
  6. [6]Bloovi — Hoe RFID-technologie winkeldiefstal en voedselverspilling tegengaat
  7. [7]FoodPersonality — Lidl werkt met beveiligingsstickers op diefstalgevoelige producten
  8. [8]Talking Retail — RFID tags target meat thieves
  9. [9]Coveris — SourceTag security technology for carton packaging
  10. [10]Labels & Labeling — Coveris extends SourceTag to carton packaging
  11. [11]Checkpoint Systems — Food labels
  12. [12]Checkpoint Systems — Food & beverage solutions
  13. [13]Dipole RFID — RFID in the meat sector
  14. [14]Checkpoint Systems — Oplossingen voor de voedingsmiddelen- en drankenindustrie
  15. [15]Checkpoint Systems — Source tagging
  16. [16]AD — Albert Heijn experimenteert met beveiligd vlees tegen diefstal
  17. [17]CPCON Group — Cost of RFID tags vs barcodes
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