ORLANDO, Fla. - Emerson’s GO NFC Logger and GO Real-Time CO2 Tracker attracted attention at Fresh Summit, says Matthew Neidlinger, director of produce management cargo solutions for the company.
With loggers and trackers from Emerson, links in the produce supply chain can ensure the best possible shelf life for fresh produce, ultimately building the reputation of the grower and the retailer, he says.
Loggers, powered by a coin-cell type battery, are waterproof and self-contained and can be stuck to a side of a pallet to monitor the ambient temperature. Loggers are the most cost-effective solution to get a temperature record of produce in transit, he says.
Emerson is just releasing the GO NFC Logger, which allows near-field-communication enabled devices to download the temperature record of the logger when it arrives. Neidlinger says the Apple’s iPhone, on iPhone 7 and above, offer the capability of NFC enabled capability outside Apple Pay.
There are other versions of the logger that plug into a USB port on a computer or feature radio frequency communication that can deliver wireless data up to 200 feet.
On the tracker side, Neidlinger says those more sophisticated devices typically operate through cellular technology and can transmit a stream of data to cellular networks in real-time.
The trackers can transmit time, sense light, temperature, location. The latest model from Emerson — the GO Real-Time CO2 Tracker — offers the ability to measure carbon dioxide levels, he says. For example, pallets of strawberries are frequently wrapped and then flooded with CO2 to preserve shelf life.
“What we’re trying to do here is for those that use or are interested in a controlled atmosphere type of application, (we) can get them some more monitoring data around CO2,” he says. That data can alert shippers to possible shelf life issues before the produce is compromised.
A trend for trackers is the reusable model, which allows an organization to recharge a tracker through a USB port, wipe the data clean and use it for another trip.
Emerson’s GO Real-Time Secure Tracker, another new product, helps reduce cargo theft and financial loss by securing the cargo with a locking bolt on truck’s doors that alerts shippers and receivers with its GPS location when it is tampered with or cut.
