Patent ID: 7680691

Claim:
management system for monitoring selected perishable food products, the system comprising: a container suitable to sequentially hold the selected perishable food products; a radio frequency identification tag linked to the container, wherein the identification tag is passive in the absence of interrogation, and upon interrogation can supply tag identification information without also supplying information about a food product characteristic; an interrogator suitable to interrogate the radio frequency identification tag, the interrogator comprising a processor that can execute a stored program to: i. apply an initial interrogation signal to the identification tag as one begins to monitor the container; ii. receive an initial response signal from the identification tag in response to the initial interrogation signal, wherein the initial response signal has tag identification information; iii. store the tag identification information along with both an indication of an initial monitoring time for the container with an indication of a characteristic of a first food product stored therein; iv. apply a subsequent interrogation signal to the identification tag, wherein the subsequent interrogation signal occurs after the initial interrogation signal; v. receive a subsequent response signal from the identification tag in response to the subsequent interrogation signal, wherein the subsequent response signal includes the tag identification; and vi. determine an elapsed time between the initial monitoring time and the time of the subsequent response signal; a user interface whereby a user can enter into the processor, without storing additional data on the tag, a characteristic of the first food product when that first food product is about to be monitored, and whereby a user can thereafter activate an instruction to clear the initial monitoring time, elapsed time, and food characteristic information in the processor with respect to that first product in order to permit re-use of the container with a second selected food product; and wherein the interrogator further comprises a display configured to display the characteristic of the first food product along with the time that the first food product has been monitored.