ure
and relative humidity measurements every 2 min, and they
were all activated at the same time. The tags were introduced inside
the polystyrene boxes (as shown in Fig. 4) once the fish load
arrived in the European Union and passed the mandatory veterinary
inspection. After sealing the fish boxes, the load was sent by
road to Vitoria in a refrigerated truck.
In the second validation field test, the temperature monitoring
with the RFID tags began in the processing factory in South Africa,
where the tags were placed inside the fish boxes, and continued at
each step of the food chain until the retailer distribution in Vitoria
(Spain). Important traceability data such as origin, specie, capture
data, etc. were also recorded in the tag and traced along the whole
logistic chain according to the Tracefish Standard (CEN, 2003).
and to avoid malfunctions in the electronics caused by water condensation,
it was necessary to use a SF1 filtercap (Sensirion, Switzerland),
placed in a hole on the top of the IP67 housing box that
provided protection to the SHT15 sensor. The RFID tag was placed
on a corner of the fish box to ensure a correct real-time reading of
the temperature and relative humidity measurements (maximum
reading distance of about 10 cm) from the outside without the
need of opening the fish box.