Did you ever wonder where exactly the food is from your eating right now? And not just that, also how and from whom it is produced, under what conditions do the employees work and so on. When you go to a restaurant or a supermarket these days, most of the time you probably don’t have detailed information about the food you are going to buy or eat. Maybe you find some information about the origin and the production standard e.g., organic, fair-trade etc. With a corresponding label. For more details, however, you must invest a lot of time and there is a high probability that you will not find all the information you would like to know. In restaurants the situation is even worse, the possible origin of meat are provided, for more details you need to choose the restaurant very wisely, ask the staff or just be very, very lucky.
With the blockchain technology this very complicated and often impossible process of finding information to food products and its value chain, might become much easier to be obtained.
Let’s have a look at a practical example of a processed food product and how a transparent food value chain might look like in the future. First, an electronic or digital verification network that work in real time must be established for individual foods. For instance, the first data block would be created by a farmer whose potatoes are the ingredients in a processed food product as ready-to-eat Rösti. The dataset might contain, for example, the potato species, the history of the treatment of the plant, pesticides and fertilizers used, harvest date, but also further information such as temperature, weather conditions and much more.
The next data block could be created at the packaging company with data on storage temperature, cleaning of the food, place of storage and storage duration, the next block during transport, the next with processing data in further processing, and then step by step further on to the sales shelf in the retail market. Due to the chain effect of the blockchain technology, a major advantage is that data of individual blocks is practically impossible to be altered or manipulated without notice. What makes it very attractive for the food industry is, that a customer can access it by just scanning a QR code.
Not only customers can profit from a transparent food value chain. Also, the supermarkets and food processer, where food security and prevention of fraud are important topics, can take advantage of the new technology. For instance, once a person becomes sick due to a spoilt food, the origin of that food badge can be determined exactly. The information then can be distributed to every affected party and the possible spoilt food can be taken out of the value chain. This can save time and money, since the precise localisation options mean that less food has to be disposed of. Furthermore, the risk of a loss in reputation can be decreased.
To sum it all up, the introduction of the blockchain technology into the food value chain can have significant benefits for both, producers and customers. On one hand, it could increase transparency for the customers in regarding the origin, working conditions, chemicals used, means of transportation, work conditions etc. Related to the product. On the other hand, producers can increase food security, fraud prevention and reduce reputational risk. It will certainly probably take a few more years and many of convincing discussions, before this type of transparency becomes a reality in the food industry. But when the time comes, it can really create and add value to the production of food.
Peter Gantenbein
Sources:
https://www.lebensmittelverband.de/de/lebensmittel/technologie/blockchain
Image Source:
https://www.altoros.com/blog/blockchain-at-walmart-tracking-food-from-farm-to-fork/
FoodArchitecture 