RFID: "Exchangeable" packaging will be available within 2 years

Consumers take a leisurely walk in the shopping mall and scan the food with a scanner to scan various food nutrition information. This is a description of the way people shop in the UK within the next two years.

Sandrine Cunney, chief engineer at Cambridge Consultants, said that RFID technology will be used first for bar codes, which will enable consumers to better understand product information. She predicts that the technology will be the first diagnostic package that can connect with consumers. But Cunney said that the retailer's resistance to indicators of deteriorating foods - which can detect germs in food - will make the technology look dim, and that time temperature indicators and RFID will have broad prospects.

The first step in the study of the information conveyed by food content is still stuck on paper. But Cunney said that this process does not take too long. Cambridge Consultants said this was due to the development of RFID technology and the European Commission's mandatory regulations for traceable food packaging in 2005. The arrival of a diagnostic package that can communicate with the product with a handheld device is not far off.