Canadian Food Retailers Test RFID

A number of food retailers and suppliers in Canada have started RFID trials on a selection of products. The pilot project is being led by the fledgling Canadian RFID Centre and lasts until the end of the year. [via RFID Journal]

Matmaker Tries RFID

CMS, a maker of high-density polyethylene mats, used in industrial situations in extreme temperatures, is embedding passive RFID tags in some of its products. These tags would allow them to track each mat's manufacturing record and associate it with rental and purchase orders. Their outgoing setup consists having to verify as many as 430 tags in an outbound shipment. They've had 100% read rates in just a few seconds. [via RFID Journal]

Dim Future for Passive RFID Tags?

Chris Kapsambelis, founder of Barcode Data Systems, wrote recently about why the future for passive RFID tags is dim. Chris also says that RFID pilots show that the "smart shelf" is too expensive. Item-level tagging still requires a fair bit of testing. As for pallet-level testing, pallet read rates are high, but the case-level rates fluctuate between 50-80%. [via The RFID Weblog]

Variations of existing RFID technologies, as well as alternatives, are being tested. The net result is that many retailers have either postponed their RFID trials, or changed their approach. Overall, the rollout of some projects has been delayed.