Bluetooth Meets Seafood: BLE Sensors Transforming Seafood Traceability

Abstract

Seafood is one of the most heavily traded and most fraud-prone food commodities in the world, moving through fishing vessels, processors, cold stores, distributors, and retailers before it reaches a consumer’s plate. At every one of these handoffs, information about the product’s origin, temperature history, and handling can be lost, altered, or falsified. This article examines how Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensor technology is emerging as a practical, low-cost tool for closing these traceability gaps. Unlike static RFID tags that must be manually scanned, BLE sensors broadcast identity and environmental data continuously to any nearby smartphone or gateway, making it possible to reconstruct a near-continuous, item-level history of a seafood shipment’s journey. Drawing on recent research in wireless sensor networks, cold-chain logistics, and blockchain-enabled food traceability, the article explains how BLE works, why it is well suited to the seafood cold chain, where it is already being deployed, and what challenges remain before it becomes a mainstream traceability tool. The discussion is aimed at a general audience, seafood industry professionals, supply chain managers, and technology-curious readersrather than specialists in wireless protocol design.