Tantra Analyst

Projected retail food waste of $540 billion in 2026 is driving the adoption of improved RFID labels for perishables.

Spoiled food is a major contributor to the global sustainability challenge. It is an even bigger financial challenge in the retail food sector, where food waste losses are projected to reach a staggering $540 billion in 2026. Much of this waste comes from perishables such as meat, bakery, deli, and fresh produce. The strict expiry dates and the need for “farm fresh” products make perishable logistics highly complex. But the latest advancements in RFID label (“tags” in industry lingo) technology and economies of scale are beginning to solve that complexity to help dramatically reduce perishable food waste.

According to Avery Dennison, traditional RFID struggles within cold, high-moisture, and densely packed environments inherent to fresh food retail. To address this challenge, the company this week launched its AD IdentiFresh Inlay Series RFID labels for perishable food categories, which are powered by RFID manufacturer Impinj’s M800 series endpoint ICs and Gen2X enhancements.

Challenges in managing the logistics of perishables

The challenges of managing perishables are well known in the industry. These are high-velocity, experience-driven products that require frequent repositioning on shelves and price adjustments. For retailers, it is a constant struggle between high-cost manual inventory monitoring and selling before expiry or eating (pun intended) the cost of spoilage. Both significantly affect the bottom line.

RFID technology is not always conducive to tagging perishable products, for various reasons. For example, perishables are usually stored in extremely cold, high-humidity environments, in metal enclosures (fridges, freezers), and often packed in metal trays or foil, all of which are bad for RF signal propagation. These items are usually densely stocked, with unstructured shelf placements that are often disrupted by customers, requiring high-capacity, fast, and robust scanning. Traditional labels used for perishables were also too small for the RFID antennas. Moreover, the whole business operates on low-margin economics, so a good ROI is essential to make any solution viable.

Solving the RFID labeling challenge for perishable food

The wide adoption of RFID in the apparel and retail sectors had naturally piqued the food industry’s interest. This adoption is reducing RFID costs and making it viable for perishables, provided the technology challenges are addressed. That is exactly where Impinj’s M800-series ICs with Gen2X enhancements come into play.

Most modern RFID ICs comply with the industry standard  RFID Gen2v2 specification, published in 2013. But those specifications are not enough to address the unique challenges of perishables. Impinj has developed a set of features beyond these standards, called Gen2X, that are critical to enabling RFID labels for perishables.

As with many wireless systems, the backlink (tag to reader) is the limiting factor in RFID performance. Anything that improves backlinks will improve the overall performance. That’s what some Gen2X features do, while also improving scanning efficiency and reliability. Gen2X features include:

Gen2X Tag Reply Formatting: This changes the preamble structure and modulation of the backlink to make it more robust. Impinj claims this can improve the link budget by up to 6dB.

Gen2X Fast Re-inventory: This allows readers to suppress unnecessary replies for already-identified tags, accelerating re-inventory cycles (up to 100% faster).

Tag Quieting: This selects flags to quiet specific tag subgroups and prevent repeated responses from known tags, improving accuracy and efficiency in high-volume operations.

Gen2X Tag Selection: This enables readers to specify which tags respond during a Gen2X inventory scan and which remain silent, thereby reducing unwanted responses, minimizing RF congestion, and improving read accuracy in dense tag environments.

Power Boost: This increases the transmit power of readers via waveform shaping to improve tag sensitivity, extend range, and enhance reliability. Impinj claims this can deliver up to 2dB of additional effective power.

The broader range and improved sensitivity of Gen2X have enabled Avery Dennison to develop more performant antennas within the same footprint as today’s food labels. “Gen2X delivers meaningful improvements in speed, accuracy, and reliability, enabling high-performance RFID deployments, including challenging categories like fresh food,” said Impinj’s VP of endpoint ICs George Dyche. “As enterprises measure ROI, Gen2X support across tag ICs and readers is becoming essential for modern RFID systems.”

It’s worth noting that Gen2X is compatible with Gen2v2 specifications but needs support on both ends (reader and endpoint). Recognizing this, Impinj is collaborating with a broad ecosystem of vendors to accelerate adoption. The company is even licensing Gen2X royalty-free to reader manufacturers, and the company said it is also open to contributing broadly useful elements of Gen2X to the next version of the specifications.

RFID labels enable more automation, optimization, and AI

RFID labels for perishables not only reduce waste but also open up significant opportunities for automation and AI to optimize operations and maximize profits for retailers.

Accurate, fast inventorying helps retailers avoid the dilemma I mentioned earlier, allowing them to price and position perishables effectively to maximize revenue and minimize waste. Given the scale of today’s large food suppliers and grocery chains, even single-digit reductions in spoilage can have major benefits.

RFID labels, when used with overhead readers, enable supply chain automation, such as automated inward inventory management and cashless “grab and go” shopping. In the near future, AI models could ingest RFID data to improve demand forecasting, which is extremely crucial for perishables, as well as dynamically determine prices based on inventory, expiry dates, and other factors.

The AD IdentiFresh labels are an early proof point, and their success is very likely to further increase adoption, which in turn would contribute to reducing overall food waste. That means higher margins for retailers, and improved sustainability for the entire planet, a win-win situation indeed.

Prakash Sangam is the founder and principal at Tantra Analyst, a leading boutique research and advisory firm. He is a recognized expert in 5G, Wi-Fi, AI, Cloud and IoT. To read articles like this and get an up-to-date analysis of the latest mobile and tech industry news, sign-up for our monthly newsletter at TantraAnalyst.com/Newsletter, or listen to our Tantra’s Mantra podcast.