The U.S. Department of Defense is testing RFID with the hope of using the technology to get more nutritious foods into the hands of U.S. troops involved in critical missions overseas.

Long an innovator when it comes to RFID, the DOD’s latest use case involves tagging First Strike Rations, a compact, eat-on-the-move assault ration designed for use by soldiers during periods of highly intense and mobile combat operations, such as those in Afghanistan. The DOD has enlisted a team of researchers at the University of South Florida Polytechnic’s College of Technology and Innovation Lab to develop a system to predict the shelf life of packaged FSR meals and to monitor their quality during shipment and storage.

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