Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
An assured supply of high-quality food is essential to the health and well-being of the world population, but the modern agri-food enterprise is challenged by incidences of contamination, food waste, and food fraud. Illness-causing contamination appears all too frequently and results in expensive and reputation-destroying recalls. Food waste is often a result of the inadequate tracking of food on its journey from farm to fork or occurs due to misunderstandings about when food is good or safe to eat. The prevalence of adulterated food is much wider than most people realize and causes significant economic damage when premium items are undercut by the substitution of inferior products or ingredients. These issues are being tackled by increased supply chain transparency - knowing exactly what and where each item is at all times - made possible by advanced methods of handling information such as blockchain. But this data-centric approach will only work if we have versatile identifiers which securely link individual items in the real world to their digital presence in the product cloud, so-called digital triggers.With prior NIFA support, we developed a secure digital trigger, the Dendritic Identifier (DI), an item-level "fingerprint" that is naturally unique, copy-proof, very inexpensive, and readable using camera-based devices. The DI can be scanned in the store or in the kitchen using nothing more than a cell phone running an app, providing instantaneous product authentication and potentially empowering consumers to make informed choices by connecting them to information on safety, nutrition, shelf-life, and provenance. Industry benefits of the highly granular traceability that results from the use of item-level identifiers include better logistics, which result in reduced spoilage, and hyper-targeted low-impact product recalls. However, we came to realize that the push toward the inclusion of label-based identifiers on food items will lead to greater usage of label material and/or single-use packaging, which in turn will increase environmentally harmful downstream plastic waste. The overall goal of this current project is therefore to develop an innovative solution to this dilemma in the form of DI triggers that can be created directly on individual items in place of the current stickers or packaging used for product identification. These "direct-to-object" (DTO) identifiers will be based on food-safe materials that can be easily washed off by the consumer while still providing the physical and digital robustness necessary for the agri-food supply chain. The work includes research on identifier formation using a variety of materials that are common in food processing, studies of formation techniques to provide guidelines for companies interested in developing and employing scalable production methods, and the refinement of economic models of the scheme.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of the project is well aligned with the Novel Foods and Innovative Manufacturing Technologies area priority, as we intend to develop an approach that will reduce loss of food and more easily connect consumers to food information while simultaneously decreasing label and packaging waste. This will be achieved by extending our prior work on Dendritic Identifiers (DI) - a novel cell phone readable digital trigger that connects individual items to their digital presence in the new wave of electronic ledgers that are enhancing efficiency, quality, safety, loss control, and transparency in agri-food production systems. The underlying technology for the scalable manufacturing and reading (using a cellphone app and cloud-based data processing) of label-based DI triggers has already been developed under a previous NIFA supported program. We will now direct our efforts to the formation of these elements directly on food items in place of current labels or packaging used for product identification. Direct marking of produce to reduce the cost and waste associated with labels has been attempted in the past but has not met with much success. Through our previous work on the DI technology and preliminary studies of direct-to-object (DTO) techniques, we believe we have the makings of the ultimate product identification solution for agri-food supply chains.The supporting objectives of this work are:1. Provide material formulations which result in easily read triggers on produce using direct-to-object methods that are food-safe, stable, and effortlessly removable by the consumer.2. Develop a scalable manufacturing process framework for DTO DI trigger formation.3. Consider the potential financial feasibility of the DTO DI technology vis-à-vis existing and alternative proposed labeling systems under uncertain market conditions.
Project Methods
ACTIVITY 1: Material researchThe primary goal of this activity is to determine which material formulations will be suitable for the creation of Dendritic Identifier (DI) patterns directly on produce. This is a difficult and multi-dimensional research problem, as we must consider material requirements that are unique to the food supply chain, in addition to being able to form suitable patterns on the surfaces of a range of food items. Our chosen materials must result in patterns that are (a) well-ramified with appropriate density, (b) readable with low error rate, (c) correctly sized, and (d) compatible with direct-to-object (DTO) methods. This will involve laboratory work in the following areas:Pattern density. Exploration of the material and processing parameters required to yield patterns that have sufficient well-defined "keypoints" in the form of bifurcations, terminations, and other geometric features on the surfaces of a variety of fresh produce items.Readability. Optimization of pattern sharpness and contrast through research into material composition and processing parameters.Pattern size. Determination of fluid type, volume, and formation parameters to give patterns that are large enough to be read using unaided cellphones.Direct to object methods. Exploration of roller and stamping methods for pattern formation on produce.Food safe materials. Determination of optimal pattern forming materials from a range of GRAS/food-safe options.Testing in use environments. Laboratory-based testing of identifiers in simulated use environments and small real-world pilots to ensure identifier survivability.Materials research plan. Extensive investigation of material/surface properties using a wide variety of materials analysis techniques to predict and verify optimal compositions and processing parameters.ACTIVITY 2: Manufacturing methodsThe main goal of this activity is to explore the technical challenges of deploying the DTO DI technology in the agri-food supply chain. Note that we do not intend to create an entire production process for direct placement of DI triggers at line speeds on produce but will instead study the issues and limitations of the technology in order to create a guide for companies interested in developing and employing scalable manufacturing methods. This activity will also consider how the technology will operate in the real world. For example, we will determine how graphics could physically be added to the DI pattern in order to (a) provide additional invariant features such as simple branding to each item, and (b) enhance the aesthetic appearance of the pattern so that the trigger is potentially more acceptable to the consumer. This will involve the following sub-tasks:Industry partnering. Expert input from industry will be solicited from key partners in DTO technologies, food labeling, and Dendritic Identifiers.Proto-manufacturing. Investigation of how DTO DI technology may be scaled up using the results from the other efforts in material selection and pattern optimization.Feature co-printing. Exploration of the addition of invariant features to the DI patterns (borders, aesthetic improvements, and other static information) using standard printing methods along with the dendrite formation process.ACTIVITY 3: Economic modelingIn this activity we aim to develop economic/NPV models of the DTO scheme including the impact of reduction in downstream waste. This includes analysis of the necessary monetary investment in DTO technology by firms operating along the produce supply chain, including growers, packers, shippers, distributors, and retailers, and the projected benefits of technology adoption. Traditional NPV analysis assumes that all future cash flows, both positive and negative, associated with the investment are known with certainty. Since this is unrealistic, we will adopt the following approaches in our economic research:Incorporating risk into the NPV analysis. In considering real options for technology adoption, we will consider alternative diffusion processes such that any real options estimates provided are robust and sensitive to the potential diffusion of the technology.Necessary cost information. Information on costs of production, labeling, fixed costs of the technology, etc. will be gathered from various sources, including various local and regional industry partners. Various software tools will be used to implement Monte Carlo simulations of risky cash flows, and analyzemodels of technology diffusion.