The contamination of bulk food poses a high consequence threat to our society.
The goal of the project is to develop a wireless security system that will assure the delivery of milk,
milk samples and security information from the dairy farm to the dairy plant.
A systems approach will be used to identify the critical points for obtaining
multi-dimensional security information: security event, time of occurrence,
geographic location and identity of truck driver.
The wireless system will be designed to accommodate the future likelihood
that dairy herd information must be transported to the dairy plant with the milk.
The system will be designed to operate automatically and require minimal
or no attention by the milk truck driver.
A demonstration system will be tested in collaboration with farms and dairy plants.
Project includes development of a standard data collection protocol that is cost effective,
compatible with existing milk transport infrastructure,
has the support of the dairy farmers, milk haulers, and processors.
The developed electronic system will be commercialized by presenting it to the collaborating
dairy tank manufacturers, sensor manufactures and other interested parties.
The milk transport security protocol may be applicable toward other bulk food transport
situations both nationally and internationally.
Successful development of this project will add significantly to the national security infrastructure
for bulk food transport.
This project is in collaboration with the
University of Kentucky.
Dr. Fred Payne of UK is the principal investigator for the project.
Dr. Phillip Womble, co-principal investigator of the project, leads the API's research team.
Industrial collaborators include companies from Kentucky and Tennessee:
Alan Wilson Trucking and Slayback Milk Transport (milk hauling);
Southern Belle Dairy and Winchester Farms Dairy (milk processors);
Bluegrass Tank and Equipment, Starr Stainless, Inc. (milk tank manufacturers);
Dairy Farmers of America MidEast Council (dairy producer).
Northwest Nuclear, LLC will collaborate in wireless asset tracking development.
Balluff, Inc. will support the project with electronic sensors.
• Read the project press-release.
