The topic of food traceability may seem overplayed, but it is a critical issue related to people's livelihoods and social stability. Perhaps it is too late to bring it up again for discussion, but the daunting issue of food safety remains a concern. Earlier, the industry has been discussing whether QR codes and RFID technology can solve food safety traceability. How do they address these problems, and in what ways?
As emerging technologies, QR codes and RFID have only been introduced into China for a few years. The real traceability effect actually comes from the improvement of the entire industrial chain. The role of QR codes and RFID in this process is merely to help farmers, purchasers, manufacturers, and sales suppliers achieve full-process monitoring.
Perceptual understanding of QR codes and RFID
In terms of technology, the core technology of QR codes lies in Japan and the United States, and RFID is something China has only recently invested efforts to promote in recent years. From these aspects, most IoT industry manufacturers currently adopt a strategy of introduction and integration, transforming others' technologies into usable nodes in their own products for promotion and publicity. If the public interprets such actions as catering to market interests, it is not an unreasonable view.
Naturally, such thoughts are not limited to the general public. Many manufacturers follow the trend for this purpose, using an inappropriate metaphor: 'Like a swarm of locusts sweeping through, leaving devastation in their wake.' For the vast majority of farmers, when companies wave the banner of food safety traceability to recommend products, who would consider whether these monitoring products are truly suitable for the farmers in the local area?
Many people may disagree with the above viewpoint, even with indignation. If you were placed in the scenario of a company salesperson, would you genuinely consider the hard work of farmers? Although such incidents are rare in the industry, the outcome is self-evident.
This approach, in many people's eyes, is indeed an emotional manifestation driven by profit. When faced with profit, would you consider the interests of others? Perhaps you would, perhaps you would not; regardless, the result is already predetermined.
Rational view of food safety traceability
On the other hand, some companies also focus on food safety traceability with profit as the starting point, but they adopt a gentler and more agreeable approach. Through rational analysis, they start from the current region, soil, vegetation, and planting habits to develop and implement relevant technologies.
Using core RFID sensing technology, data is detected, collected, and analyzed from the seed planting stage, including soil moisture and nutrients, and current air quality. A most reasonable set of answers is summarized and fed back to farmers. The system also tracks the periodic pesticide spraying by growers, and uses cloud technology to transmit this information to product purchasing and processing plants, allowing them to immediately know which regions' crops, livestock, or poultry are ready for market.
Purchasing and production companies then acquire, process, and disinfect the products, and later use QR code technology to bring them to market. At this point, sales personnel play their role: when recommending products to markets, supermarkets, and cafeterias, they enable buyers to scan QR codes to learn about the entire monitoring process of product production and processing. Even if a safety issue arises, it can be investigated using the monitoring data stored on the cloud platform, thereby achieving food safety traceability.
In fact, food safety traceability is just a general term for the entire production, processing, and sales system. QR codes and RFID technology are merely supporting functions within this system. The real value depends on the enterprises themselves; different market positioning yields different results. Whether one follows the trend for profit or pursues profit following the trend is entirely determined by the company's own positioning. A successful company does not focus on immediate gains due to temporary impulses; instead, it concentrates on full-process assurance, which yields far greater value than selling a single monitoring product.
Therefore, QR codes and RFID should not be regarded as the key points in food safety traceability; they are only a link in the whole process—a tool to help farmers, enterprises, manufacturers, and monitoring departments achieve safety process monitoring. Only by correctly understanding and applying these IoT-related technologies can their true value be realized. Otherwise, they will be abandoned by the industry and forgotten by people.