Acrylic esters are a critical raw material in pressure-sensitive adhesives, the very adhesives that secure RFID inlays within smart labels used across retail, logistics, and supply chain applications. By switching to acrylates produced with renewable electricity, manufacturers of RFID inlay tags can reduce the carbon footprint of their products without any compromise on performance. BASF confirms the new acrylates are functionally equivalent to their conventional counterparts and work as drop-in replacements, meaning no retooling or reformulation is needed on the production line.

For the RFID sector, this is a meaningful step forward. As major retailers and logistics providers push for greener supply chains, the environmental credentials of every component in an RFID tag come under scrutiny. The adhesive layer that bonds a UHF RFID inlay to its substrate is no exception. With billions of RFID inlay tags produced each year for applications ranging from garment tagging to pallet tracking, even modest reductions in per-unit emissions add up quickly at scale.

Avery Dennison, one of the world’s largest producers of RFID inlays and smart labels, was the first company to commercialise these renewable energy acrylates. The move supports the company’s target of a 30% reduction in Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and aligns with broader industry efforts to decarbonise the RFID supply chain from raw materials through to finished tags.

“This accomplishment highlights the power of investing in responsible production and efficient, future-ready operations,” said Michael Limbach, Vice President at BASF’s Performance Chemicals division. Collins Oluka, Vice President of Global Procurement and Sustainability at Avery Dennison, added that innovations like renewable-energy-enabled acrylic esters help advance the company’s long-term sustainability goals.

The collaboration signals a growing trend in the RFID industry: sustainability is no longer limited to how tags are used, but extends to how they are made. As RAIN RFID adoption continues to accelerate across retail, healthcare, and logistics, the demand for greener inlay production will only increase. Partnerships like this one between BASF and Avery Dennison demonstrate that reducing emissions and maintaining product quality can go hand in hand.

Read more at https://www.averydennison.com/en/home/news/press-releases/basf-and-avery-dennison-collaborate-to-launch-acrylates-based-on-renewable-electricity.html

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The integration centres on Pragmatic’s NFC Connect PR1301 product line, a flexible IC designed specifically for NFC applications. Unlike conventional silicon-based chips, the FlexIC is ultra-thin, flexible and robust enough to be applied to curved and irregular surfaces. That makes it a natural fit for packaging formats where rigid silicon chips have traditionally struggled, from bottles and tubes to pouches and blister packs.

For brands, the technology opens up a straightforward route to secure smartphone-tap interactions on packaged goods. A consumer simply taps their phone against the product to access digital content, verify authenticity or engage with brand experiences. There is no app required and the interaction works across both iOS and Android devices, following standard NFC protocols.

The environmental angle is worth noting too. Pragmatic’s manufacturing process uses significantly fewer chemicals, less energy and less water compared to traditional silicon semiconductor fabrication. For companies under pressure to reduce supply chain environmental impact, that is a meaningful differentiator when selecting NFC components at scale.

Target applications span retail, healthcare, digital brand experiences, product authentication and Digital Product Passport (DPP) compliance. With EU regulations on DPPs approaching implementation deadlines, the ability to cost-effectively tag individual items with NFC could prove critical for brands selling into European markets. The technology also supports edge and item-level intelligence, giving supply chain operators visibility down to the individual product rather than just the case or pallet level.

Mathieu De Backer, Vice President at Avery Dennison, highlighted NFC as increasingly important digital infrastructure for consumer-facing products. Meanwhile, James Davey, Senior Vice President at Pragmatic Semiconductor, pointed to the partnership as a route to delivering deeper consumer engagement at a scale that has not previously been achievable with flexible NFC technology.

The combination of low-cost item-level tagging, flexible form factor and sustainable manufacturing positions this as a serious proposition for brands looking to move beyond barcode-only identification. Whether the driver is regulatory compliance, consumer engagement or supply chain visibility, having a flexible NFC inlay that can be produced and applied at mass scale removes one of the key barriers that has historically limited NFC adoption on fast-moving consumer goods.

Read more at https://rfid.averydennison.com/content/rfid/na/en/home/news-insights/press-releases/avery-dennison-announces-first-to-market-integration-of-pragmatic-semiconductors-chip-on-a-mass-scale.html

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The new inlays sit within the company’s Optica Food Solutions portfolio and are engineered to tackle the specific RF challenges that have historically made tagging fresh food unreliable. High-moisture products, cold storage environments and tightly packed shelf layouts all degrade read performance with conventional inlay designs. IdentiFresh addresses this through a proprietary antenna geometry and inlay construction that maintains consistent readability even on densely stacked items in chilled meat cases and refrigerated display units.

At the IC level, the inlays leverage Impinj’s M800 series endpoint ICs with Gen2X capability, delivering improved tag population management and faster inventory reads in challenging conditions. The compact form factor has been designed to integrate with existing label formats, so retailers and suppliers can adopt the technology without overhauling their current labeling equipment or workflows.

The flexibility of the platform supports both in-store and supplier-side tagging. That distinction matters because it gives retailers multiple deployment paths. A grocer could begin by tagging at the store level to gain immediate shelf-level inventory accuracy, then extend upstream to supplier facilities as the programme scales.

The launch builds on Avery Dennison’s existing work with major US food retailers including Walmart and Kroger, both of which have been exploring RFID adoption across fresh categories.

The timing is significant. A recent survey of 3,500 food retailers and supply chain leaders globally found that 50% identified meat as a particularly difficult category for waste, with 45% citing produce and 28% pointing to baked goods. Over half of respondents said that poor inventory management and overstocking are major contributors to food waste, a problem whose economic cost across the global supply chain is projected to hit $540 billion by 2026.

Mathieu De Backer, VP of Intelligent Labels Innovation at Avery Dennison, described the launch as a breakthrough that enables reliable RFID use on fresh items from production through to the point of sale. George Dyche, VP of Endpoint IC Product at Impinj, noted the broader benefit simply: when food is sold before it expires, everyone wins.

For the wider RAIN RFID ecosystem, IdentiFresh represents a meaningful step. Fresh food has long been considered one of the hardest retail categories to tag at item level. If the read performance claims hold up across real-world deployments, this could accelerate adoption well beyond the apparel and general merchandise categories where UHF RFID is already established.

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The initiative tackles a longstanding industry challenge: applying RFID in high-moisture, cold-case environments. By creating sensor-enabled RFID labels that can operate reliably in refrigerated and wet conditions, the partners are enabling item-level tracking of fresh-food inventory for the first time.

With this technology, store associates at Walmart will be able to access digital use-by dates, monitor freshness and optimise product rotation with greater speed and accuracy. The ability to track each item’s digital identity means fewer manual tasks and smarter markdown decisions, which in turn helps reduce food waste and improve operational efficiency.

Julie Vargas, Vice-President and General Manager of Avery Dennison Identification Solutions, described the work as “first-to-market RFID innovation across multiple fresh-food categories” and emphasised the mutual commitment of both companies to people and the planet. Christyn Keef, Vice-President of Front End Transformation for Walmart U.S., added that the goal is to make technology work for associates and customers by reducing manual labour and allowing more focus on service. 

From a strategic perspective the collaboration aligns with Walmart’s broader sustainability objective of halving global operational food loss and waste intensity by 2030. By enabling automated item-level identification in fresh departments the retailer is integrating a new generation of supply-chain intelligence into its store operations. 

For Avery Dennison this development reinforces its position in the digital-identification domain by applying its Optica solutions portfolio to a complex and demanding environment. The move signals the expansion of RFID from apparel and general retail into high-moisture food segments.

Despite the promise there are implementation challenges ahead. Cold-chain conditions present unique demands for tag durability, readability and attachment methods. Store-floor workflows will need to adapt to integrate item-level data into associate tasks. And store systems will need to ingest and act upon fresh-food data in real time. Still the benefits are compelling: improved freshness perception for shoppers, reduced waste and tighter inventory control.

In conclusion this collaboration between Walmart and Avery Dennison marks a significant step in the evolution of retail food-technology. By bringing RFID into fresh food departments at scale the partners are raising the bar for traceability, stock management and sustainability in grocery retail. As item-level digital identities become embedded in meat, bakery and deli segments we may be witnessing a new era in store-operation intelligence.

See Avery Dennison Press Release

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