Nonetheless, Bergquist said he's on a mission to convince the food industry of the benefits of using RFID for product tracking.

RFID "is not just good for food safety; it's good for [improving] inefficient handling methods, and processes and hand-overs from different levels in the chain. We have to increase the understanding of what benefits traceability and RFID can do for an organization," he said.

Waiting for Mandates

Michael Liard, an analyst at ABI Research in Oyster Bay, N.Y., agreed that RFID technology is the best fit for product-tracking systems. However, he added that widespread adoption won't occur unless the technology is required by state and federal legislation.

"People will jump to bar code [first] because it's a known entity," said Liard.