Tracking chips to be put in your food

UK food manufacturers are to launch a scheme to put miniscule radio frequency ID tags in edible produce.

The chips, when eaten, are so small as to pose no health hazard to shoppers but should enable supermarkets to track food through the supply chain.

More interesting perhaps is what happens after the food is eaten.

The RFID chips will enable regional water boards to track sewage through the system with the ability to identify blockages – where a glut of chips builds up – and also identify trends and patterns to create more effective waste management strategies.

The company behind the system, Trak IT-Tech, claims it may even give rise to metered billing for sewerage with water boards able to identify the source of waste down to the household of origin.

George Thompson, technical director of Trak IT-Tech, told silicon.com: "This is a pretty unsavoury topic but not half as unsavoury as having to go down into the sewers and check out blockages. This technology will mean field engineers can monitor flow from the surface."

The scheme launches next month and Thompson claims many UK consumers won't even notice the chips, which will be size of a pinhead, in their food.