Beverage Integrity Tracking (BIT) is one of nineteen ’Use Cases’ selected and funded by the Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF2020) project.
IoF2020
is working to foster the uptake of Internet of Things (IoT) in European agriculture and aims to develop, test and demonstrate IoT technologies in the five key sectors of arable, dairy, fruits, meat and vegetables. BIT is a Use Case in the fruits sector and focusses on the distribution of high-quality beverages (specifically alcoholic drinks such as wines and craft beers) which are susceptible to damage during storage and transportation.
There are many factors (temperature, humidity, shocks) that can negatively affect the quality of beverages during their journey from producer to consumer. To address this risk, the Italian company WENDA has created a cloud-based, plug-and-play application for a) monitoring and recording detailed information on the stress factors experienced by a beverage during every stage of its distribution chain and b) assessing the impact of these stress factors upon the beverage quality.
All of this is made possible by an online platform that analyses and displays the information recorded by a smart data logger placed in every box, crate or pallet of beverage that is dispatched by the producer.
The BIT Use Case is testing this system in a diverse range of operating environments and aims to demonstrate the value of the system for:
- providing insights into the beverage distribution process for all actors involved;
- preventing damages to high quality beverages during transportation and storage;
- establishing a direct relationship between producers and retailers, and;
- creating a large database to plan safe shipments thereby allowing new and customised IoT-based insurance policies.
Our Role
Highclere Consulting (HCC) is a partner in the BIT Use Case and responsible for co-ordinating the testing of the system in several Central and Eastern European countries. HCC is building partnerships with beverage producers in these countries; promoting the BIT concept, and; raising awareness of the technological solution that is available.