State agriculture officials and farmers are launching a $1.6 million pilot project that will use radio-frequency identification devices to better track produce from the farm to the consumer in the event of a recall.

The electronic tags, which would be placed in food boxes and pallets, will allow officials to trace food products back to the source in rare instances when food needs to be recalled. Food safety concerns have been recently heightened by a spate of Mainland illnesses caused by E. coli-tainted spinach and lettuce and a recent pet food recall.

About 100 farmers, retailers and government officials are expected to attend today's Department of Agriculture invitation-only briefing on the program.

The intent of the three-year project is to develop a simple and functional food traceability system that may be expanded later for use by the state's 5,000 farms. The project will initially track produce.

Among those participating in the program are Weyerhaeuser, Sugarland Farms, Nalo Farms, Armstrong Produce and Foodland Supermarkets.

"In the long run we all have to deal with the food security issue," said Dean Okimoto, president of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and owner of Nalo Farms. "Traceability is probably the biggest factor in food security."

In the pilot project, food would be shipped in boxes or pallets that are tagged with a passive transmitter that can be traced as the container moves through the food supply chain. The disposable tags, which cost 15 cents to 22 cents each, would carry data such as product identity, time and location. Radio-frequency identification tag readers would be used to track the produce at various stages — from the farm to a distributor and finally a retailer.

The system also could be used to log when the crop was planted, harvested and what pesticides were used. Ultimately, the technology may be used to monitor temperature and humidity to determine whether food products are transported and stored under appropriate conditions.

Prospective program vendors Motorola, BEA and Lowery Computer Products will provide the systems needed to implement the program's first phase for free, said John Ryan, administrator for the Agriculture Department's quality assurance division, which will collect data from the pilot project.

The Department of Agriculture is seeking grants from the Department of Homeland Security, the Economic Development Alliance of Hawaii and the Federal State Marketing Improvement Program to fund an expansion of the program.

Operational costs to farmers and other project participants will be determined during the pilot project.

"We're currently developing a business model that will make it available to farms, distributors and retailers without high front-end costs," Ryan said.

Officials hope to begin a broad rollout of the technology within a year, if program benchmarks are met.

"At the end of August we want to be able to do a demo recall where we can identify one box of tomatoes in the system and remove it within 20 minutes," Ryan said. "We're going to have high, high visibility on where it is and remove it immediately from the food supply chain. That's our No. 1 goal."

The adoption of so-called "RFID" technology so far is market-driven. However, more government funding and regulatory guidance may be needed to spur Hawai'i farmers to embrace food-tracing technology, said Nalo Farms' Okimoto.

"In the long run, (farmers) are going to have to be able to do it to sell their produce," he said. "I'm starting to believe that we may need legislation before growers start looking at this technology."

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.