Insurance company Hartford Financial Services Group-also known as The Hartford-is recommending that its customers employ an RFID system for tracking the conditions under which fresh produce is transported throughout the supply chain. The partnership involves the use of RFID technology to monitor temperature conditions at the pallet level, by placing ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) battery-assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags with built-in temperature sensors within each container, or on every pallet, and by then using readers to capture that data throughout the supply chain.

With the system, Hartford could request information from clients in order to gain a greater understanding of supply chain conditions at the time that loss of product occurred due to spoilage. And customers using the system would benefit not only from greater visibility into the supply chain, as well as the opportunity to respond to temperature fluctuations, but also from better insurance plans from Hartford, due to the reduced risk of product spoilage. In some cases, for example, clients that might not have previously qualified for certain insurance policies would now be able to do so with the RFID system in place.

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