Technology Optimization of a Milk Transport Security System

The United States Department of Homeland Security has targeted bulk food contamination as a focus for attention because it poses a high consequence health threat to our society. The current manual methods used for securing milk during transport are paper intensive and prone to errors. The bulk milk transportation sector needs security enhancement that will both reduce recording errors and enable normal transport activities to occur while providing security against unauthorized access. A robust security system coupled with improved recordkeeping would provide the opportunity for security breaches to be investigated more quickly and more thoroughly. This research project is focused on the development of an economically viable milk transport security system for securing milk during transport from the farm to the dairy processor. A prototype milk transport security system was designed under an existing DHS project titled "A Wireless Electronic Monitoring System for Securing Milk between the Dairy and Milk Plant:' The system consists of a security monitoring system located on the milk transport tank; a handheld unit (computer); and a remote data server. The system has proven functional during tests in 2007 and 2008. An economic comparison between the current manual method and the proposed milk transport security system showed that there was a one year payback for this system. The prototype system has defined the requirements for a commercially viable system. the development of which is the goal of this proposed research. The specific objectives for this proposed project include: optimization of the hardware and electronics for the security monitoring system, development of commercial quality web-based software products, development of an enterprise quality data server system, all of which cumulate in a one month field demonstration of the system. The final demonstration should show that the three processor system can operate in unison to provide the needs of the dairy plant, milk marketing agency and milk transportation company. Successful accomplishment of these objectives will provide the dairy industry with a commercially robust system that will secure milk during transport, automate the collection of milk data, and provide a trace back system to facilitate recalls. This will not only be economically beneficial to the dairy industry but will add significantly to the security infrastructure of the nation for bulk food transport. Commercialization activities can be·initiated simultaneously with the latter stages of this project.