12/24/07 Its all in the label

A Boise company started sending out its shipping labels in the spring of 2006. PakSense has enjoyed growth again this year with its time and temperature monitoring labels. Pak Sense marketing director Amy Childress says the label is flat, about the size of a small sugar packet. It's attached to a food product, records the temperatures all the way through the food chain and does it much cheaper than current methods. CHILDRESS "Our label starts out at eleven and then goes down based on volume so we automatically already have already taken half the price out of what it costs to do this." Produce, fresh meat, dairy, seafood, all can be monitored by this system CHILDRESS "It has lights on it that will flash if there's been any temperature excursions outside of your specific ranges. Also the label has a memory chip inside of it that is actually recording data and collecting data." Many companies also keep the label and attach it to the shipping documents where it can be used as reference in the event of a food safety issue. JBS Swift started using PakSense labels last month at its 11 North American processing plants, joining companies like John Morrell, Florida Natural and Albertson's LLC. If the wine industry discovers the label that may open a new market for Pak Sense which has concentrated on the food industry in its first three years of operation. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott