In 2022, Fieldale Farms received a customer request to implement new traceability requirements. The customer’s goal was to increase traceability transparency for their consumers, eliminate manual scanning at all levels of their supply chain, improve their inventory accuracies, and build consumer trust. Fieldale brought in CAT Squared to build seamless integrations between the traceability platform and plant-floor hardware to meet the customer’s request.

"CAT Squared helped us achieve the goals our customer asked for by providing new developments in RFID technology systems," said Cameron Smith, IT plant liaison at Fieldale Farms Corporation. Because CAT Squared’s plant-floor solutions are hardware- and software-agnostic, the team was easily able to integrate with readers from Zebra Technologies, software from Mojix, and labeling systems from Avery Dennison.

The customer’s RFID program required Fieldale to incorporate label attributes that comply with the GS1 Foodservice traceability program. The GS1-128 barcodes are scanned throughout the supply chain, capturing the physical location and context of specific products, their lot numbers, production dates, and expiration dates. RFIDs rely on the serialization of each case and linking that serial number to a product commissioning event.

To meet that requirement, CAT Squared handled the encoding (and decoding) of serials to SGTIN-96 (Serialized Global Trade Identification Number) for creating the RFID labels. The system then transmitted Fieldale’s production data by product to Mojix for commissioning events.

In addition to meeting their customer’s requirements, the RFID initiative is anticipated to save Fieldale time on inventory management and stock rotation, mitigate human error, and increase expiration date visibility. Ultimately, the goal is to create a more transparent supply chain through a best-in-class traceability system to enable safety, efficiency, and the verification of food with integrity.

The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) with the support of CAT Squared will present "Building a Framework for Digital Success," a webinar sharing industry best practices for technology adoption for meat and poultry producers.

"The Meat Institute’s first-ever continuous improvement report is a game changer for transparency in the sector – setting transparent baselines that will allow us to measure progress and verify our sector’s contributions to global goals,” said NAMI President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. Potts was referring to the first of many reports to come from the North American Meat Institute’s (NAMI) Protein PACT (for the People, Animals, and Climate of Tomorrow). 

Join CAT Squared's Jack Teague for his IPPE TECHTalk presentation Assessing a Business's Readiness for Smart Automation and Winning Stakeholder Support. The presentation will feature three main objectives:

The FDA’s FSMA 204 Food Traceability Rule has introduced stricter data requirements for certain foods—but many processors are still unsure how this affects them. If you manufacture, process, or pack foods on the FDA’s Food Traceability List (FTL), FSMA 204 applies to you.

Update (May 2025): The FDA has officially extended the compliance deadline for FSMA 204 from January 2026 to July 20, 2028. While this delay offers more time to prepare, it doesn’t reduce the risk of costly, overly broad recalls for companies that lack robust traceability systems.

If you’re a protein processor that has yet to take a significant step into the world of Industry 4.0, you're not alone. Globally, 90 percent of manufacturing companies are Digital Novices, Followers, or Innovators, and less than one-third are well-advanced on their digital journey. If you are just starting out, here are five practical steps to help meat and poultry processors improve manufacturing performance by digitizing their plant floor operations with Industry 4.0 technology.

Last Chance to save $100 off the Registration Price

The theme of this year's User Summit is Accelerating Continuous Improvement by Applying Industry 4.0 to Protein Production. CAT Squared along with our CTB sister companies are building a fully integrated platform that enables smart-manufacturing concepts such as the application of AI and machine learning to manufacturing processes. Several keynote presentations will demonstrate how these Industry 4.0 principles are being applied to meat and poultry processing.

The CAT Squared User Summit is designed to add value to food production operations by sharing best practices in the industry for adopting new technology in manufacturing processes. This year's Summit will be hosted at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain. The Institute provides an inspiring, secluded, historic setting to learn, connect, and innovate. This year's theme is Accelerating Continuous Improvement by Applying Industry 4.0 to Protein Production. Here are the top five reasons meat and poultry processors should attend the User Summit:

CAT Squared has been named a finalist for the 34th Annual Arkansas Business of the Year Awards, which recognizes the state’s top businesses, nonprofits, and executives.