How is QR Code Technology Revolutionising the Indian Dairy Industry?
Nowadays, when it comes to produce and sell Dairy milk, traceability represents a fundamental requirement. Before becoming an advertising stunt, we must say that the “ability” to “trace” milk along the supply chain till the point of sale should be mandatory for food safety & security.
QR Code Technology
QR codes are everywhere in modern-day society, and they provide quick access to more information about products or services. With just a quick scan using a smartphone camera, the relative link or information is quickly generated and displayed on the user’s device.
Food from dairy animals has a critical place in the human food chain. Since diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans, food safety has become an important concern for consumers and regulators. With increased awareness about the source of food, its traceability has assumed great importance. Many countries have passed laws on the traceability of the food chain to ensure compliance with standards of safety and quality. These laws put the responsibility of maintaining milk and meat quality standards on producers, who in turn demand responsible input material supplies such as feed, supplements, vaccines, and other raw materials. Since the animal is the primary source of milk, the inputs need to be traced and monitored from farm to doorstep.
Individual animal identification is the first step in this system, with a unique number allocated by the farmer or dairy manager. The Government of India has recognized its importance and has rolled out an elaborate program of animal identification.
Technology in this field has evolved much in the last twenty years. All over the world, farmers have been using new technologies to communicate with their consumers in innovative ways. In the past, cows in Britain were taken to Sales Yards for auction. These Sales Yards were a modern version of rural Indian livestock markets. However, prospective buyers were not satisfied with the information provided at these auctions.
QR codes are now used to easily convey information in many industries, including dairy and food. QR codes are two-dimension code that can be generated to connect to a ‘Uniform Resource Locator’ also commonly called URL. The URL is a link to a website where a file containing information can be uploaded. The QR code can be scanned with mobile phones using a free App, to connect to a URL and display the contents of the file on the phone. This technology was used in 2010 at cow auctions in the United Kingdom, with the QR code being painted on the sides of cows. For this they used a QR printed stencil and washable paint. The idea attracted a lot of interest but creating stencils, painting cows, and washing up after auction was more time consuming for busy farmers.
In June 2012 an interesting story appeared in ‘BBC News’ about James Barnes of Somerby, Leicestershire. James, a farmer who used milk from his farm to make premium Stilton Cheese, painted QR codes on his cows so that visitors learn about his farm and the process followed in the making of the products bought by them. French farmers also adopted this technique, using this technology to get around a ban on advertising of milk by using their cows as billboards.
Another interesting experiment was done with QR code printed on eggs. A company in the United States made a deal with a major egg supplier to print egg shells with QR codes of their products. The idea was to use egg shell as the marketing billboards. To attract consumers and encourage them to scan these eggs, they hide golden prized codes in few eggs. This idea did not move forward because of logistical difficulties.
In a major breakthrough, animal identification ear tags have been developed and patented. The ear tags are printed with a cryptic QR code replacing the linear bar code. The cryptic code provides a link to the data file of the animal. The animal’s information can be downloaded from a cloud server by scanning the ear tag with a phone-based QR scanner. One of the main advantages of this system is that data can only be entered by scanning the QR code, thus preventing false data from being uploaded.
Once the animal is tagged, lifetime records of the animal can be accessed anywhere or anytime by simply scanning the code with a phone. Farmers can register their animals by paying a nominal one-time fee and get the benefit of data management support for their herd. Over 1.3 lakh cows in three states have already been tagged and registered by a leading milk processing company in South India. Total veterinary services, genetic improvement, and productivity enhancement programmes are being implemented using this system. This technology offers tremendous potential to implement traceability programs for stray cattle, transportation of cattle and farm-to-fork movement of food.
Resultingly, QR codes are becoming increasingly popular in the food industry as they promote interaction and engagement with products through smartphones. This offers consumers rapid access to key product information, which can be more detailed and informative than conventional methods such as printing best-by or use-by dates.
A recent study conducted by a team of researchers at Cornell shows that consumers are embracing QR codes on milk cartons as they offer more accurate information on the drinkability of the milk in the container. The research, which has been published in the Journal of Dairy Science, claims that this kind of information could help reduce food and agricultural waste and benefit the entire food system.
PRECISION DAIRY IN ACTION
- Automated calf feeders provide nutrition to calves through a precise diet delivery mechanism many times a day thereby promoting a faster growth and healthier life. It can regulate the age of the calves. It empowers the dairy animals to eat whenever they want. It helps the farmers to receive up-to-the-minute reports about the growth and health of the calves.
- Milk yield recording systems furnish data of individual animals. It informs about the quantity of milk generated at each milking, daily trends in production of milk and its essential components like proteins. This information on early detection enables the farmers to identify variations in health and food intake routine of the animals. Thus, it helps the caretakers to distinguish issues that might not be apparent otherwise and take corrective action.
- Automated milking systems diminish the labour needed for milking cows. The cows intrinsically choose the time they desire to be milked. They roam around the shelter freely without any human intervention. A computer-aided equipment recognizes the bovine, cleanses the udder, delicately effects the milk collection, and finally releases the animal on the completion of milking.
- Rumination activity collars and sensors assist in the detection of behavioural and activity changes that cautions the early indications of any sickness or infection. Devices like pedometers effectively track specific bovine actions like the animal’s readiness in breeding or getting into labour thereby facilitating the farmer to provide opportune assistance.
- Blockchain technology showcases a dairy farm’s competence in milk production. The technology is an electronic ledger comprising of unique QR codes, which are attached to the dairy products’ label. These codes are capable of providing details regarding the cattle feed, any plausible administration of a treatment, rearing process, an incident of slaughter, time and location of milk production, processing techniques, added ingredients, market release date of the products etc. The codes can be scanned by the consumers using their smartphones, which can track the entire thread of milk production process leading to the final product. This technology aims at hitting and dislodging the counterfeit milk product manufacturers from the market.
- AI Machine learning uses a mix of various optical sensors and motion sensing devices to enable farmers in analysing the milk quality, its fat and protein levels, and reproductive condition of the cow. These devices can also transmit accurate information about the cow’s movement like walking, drinking, eating, lying down, or ruminating. Detection of health issues like mastitis or lameness can be done at least 24 hours prior to the conditions becoming critical. Mastitis is a severe form of bacterial infection that affects the cows often leading to fatality. These sensors can accurately identify the afflicted animals so that farmers can render the treatment in time and arrest the spread of the disease.
Use of mobile phones is drastically increased more than a desktop computer or a laptop computer. Nowadays, in every domain whether it is banking sector, healthcare sector, medical sector or insurance sector, the clients want their applications to be mobile-enabled. Mobile application development is the process by which application software is developed for small handheld devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc. With the highest market share, Android is the dominant mobile application today. The whole Android ecosystem underwent various improvements.
How QR Codes Work
QR codes are more powerful than the barcodes that have been used for decades on shipping labels and product codes. Old barcodes are read by scanning a single dimensional line across the bars. QR codes have both length and width and must be read across both dimensions. Because of this, they are able to represent up to 100 times more information than a single barcode is able to do. QR Codes are easy to display and attract attention, making them a potentially powerful marketing tool, as well. Unlike a barcode, a damaged or scratched QR Code can sometimes be readable. Furthermore, a QR Code can be read in any direction. In other words, if you place this page facing up on a table, the QR code in Image 1 is readable if scanned by someone on your left, right, or even on the other side of the page.
A QR code can direct the scanner to a number of different types of information. For example, the QR code could lead to a website. The QR code in Image 2 takes the user to the Home Depot Garden Club website where information about ornamental peppers is provided. By scanning the code on the stake that is shown, a link is opened in their mobile device’s browser. It’s important to ensure that the site be compatible with mobile devices or that the user be notified if it won’t display well on a phone.
QR codes can provide other types of content including your contact information. They can also be used to initiate communication by launching your mobile device’s phone, instant messenger, or text apps. They can also simply convey a short message or be used to indicate a geographic location using your device’s GPS-enabled features.
Creating a QR Code
It’s relatively simple to create a QR code. There are several free QR code generator sites, for example:
- QRStuff
- Kaywa
- QR Code Generator
To create a QR Code, simply choose which type of action you would like the scan to initiate and follow the site’s guidance. Be sure to save the newly created image so that you can use it in your marketing and promotion materials. Before you use it, be sure to scan it to ensure that it works correctly.
Using QR Codes for Marketing
The best way to decide how to use your QR codes is to have a plan before you generate them. Because QR codes could serve a number of purposes, think carefully about what you want each particular one to do. One of the most common uses for QR codes is to direct the user to a website. What types of websites might you consider? Think about the potential to lead the user to a mobile-ready site to sign up for a newsletter, email list, or loyalty program. Maybe you want to send them to a discount coupon or a product description. Almost any web-based content (videos, images, Facebook, or Twitter pages, etc.) can be conveyed on a mobile device, so your possibilities are tremendous. Think strategically about how you want to use your QR codes.
As an example, let’s look at how the Penn State Berkey Creamery uses a QR code (see Image 3). At times, especially during homecoming and hot summer days, the line for ice cream at the Creamery gets very long. To help customers pass the time, Creamery management placed a sign containing a QR code next to the entrance. The code leads to a YouTube video showing how Creamery ice cream is made, “from cow to cone.” In that case, the objective is to educate and to help the customer endure the wait before they can get their own cone.
Farmers’ market vendors have other options. QR codes could be used to lead visitors to the vendor’s website where they can find information about the farm’s location, a list of products grown or available at a particular time, or days/ times and location of other markets in which the farmer participates.
Depending on your objective, QR codes might be placed on brochures and other marketing materials, trucks/ trailers, product packaging, or signs. To decide where to place them, you need to understand how your customers behave. Place the QR codes where your customers (or potential customers) are. Keep in mind, though, that not all consumers use mobile devices. So QR codes should be used to supplement your other promotional tools, not replace them.
You may find, though, that some users have a mobile device but simply don’t know how to use it to scan QR codes. It’s possible that their device came with a scanning app installed. If not, they’ll need to visit the app stores (such as iTunes Store or Androids’ Marketplace) to download a scanner app. Once they have the app, they simply need to open the app and use their device to scan the code in a manner similar to taking a picture. Be prepared to educate your customers about how they can use their phones to scan your codes.
NB- In a relief to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, the government has decided to implement ‘new packaging rules’ from January 1, 2023. Earlier, it was decided that the new rules would be effective from December 1, 2022. However, it has now been delayed by one month.
According to new packaging rules, 19 types of items – including milk, tea, biscuits, baby food, pulses, bottled water, edible oil, flour, cement bags, bread and detergents – will have to give complete information on the packets. Also, it would be compulsory for the imported products to mention the date of manufacture and country of origin.
The new rule also states that the manufacturers will have to mention the price per gram or ml in case the weight of the quantity of the product is less or more than the standard weight.
Earlier in July this year, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Thursday issued new rules for the packaging of electronic goods. As per the new rule, giving a QR code has been made compulsory on the packaging with relevant information for products manufactured on or from July 15 onwards.
If not mentioned as a QR code, the information should be part of the packaging, said the rules called the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) (Second Amendment) Rules, 2022, notified by the ministry.
Citing relevant clauses and sections, the ministry had said, “Provided that in the case of an electronic product which is manufactured or packed or imported after July 15, the package of such product shall, for a period of one year from such date, declare the name of the manufacturer or packer or importer, as the case may be, on the package itself and such declaration shall also inform the consumers to scan the QR code for the address and other related information.”
DR PRASHANT YOGI, DAIRY CONSULTANT,PUNE
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IMAGE-CREDIT-GOOGLE
