There is a lot of debate about the next big market for RFID after retail apparel. Intriguing use cases exist in healthcare, but the folks at Avery Dennison are banking on the food sector — fresh fruits and meats in particular — as the next frontier for RFID.

Every year retailers waste about $15 billion worth of fresh produce that goes unsold. Avery Dennison believes that RFID could prevent 20 percent of that, saving the industry at least $3 billion a year. The potential for tagging food dwarfs apparel.

“Food volumes are enormous compared to apparel volumes,” says James Stafford, global head of food RFID development at Avery Dennison. “Even medium size retailers sell tens of billions of items a year.”

By comparison, about 4.2 million apparel items will be tagged this year, according to ChainLink Research, with a total pool of about 50 billion apparel items potentially being tagged in the future.

“The business case is a little different than the clothing business, and the driver behind it is slightly different,” says Stafford. “The business case is very high level.”

Earlier this summer Avery Dennison began a pilot with two grocery retailers in Europe to test RFID on perishable items like fruits, vegetables and meats. Avery Dennison is also looking to collaborate with retailers and manufacturers in the United States. The company has manufactured more than 4 billion RFID tags and labels.

In the pilot, higher value items like meat and poultry are being tagged at the item level, while less expensive items like strawberries are tagged at the tray level. The pilot is also conducting research on tag placement for perishables.