“Trust Machine” Blockchain: The Terminator of Food Safety Issues

Regardless of whether the supply is sufficient or not, the food industry is always rife with problems. Recent surveys show that global food waste accounts for 30% of the total supply, and the food waste rate in the United States is as high as 50% of the national supply.

There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon. For example, the over-industrialized production process. In order to attract more consumers with low prices, merchants have to seek industrialized processes to reduce production costs. The industrialized production process ultimately leads to an oversupply of products, resulting in waste.

In addition, food safety is the focus of consumers. Problems such as mad cow disease and cross infection have made consumers pay more attention to the food processing process and its certification information.

In the United States, more than 80% of antibiotics are used in food processing. U.S. agricultural activities have caused environmental problems and may even exacerbate climate change. The government has also tried to enact laws and establish standards on agricultural issues, but they have all come to nothing due to difficulties in specific implementation.

Recent developments in the digital economy could help. The sector is dedicated to providing low-cost, highly flexible smart solutions. Real-time temperature control systems and smart refrigerators can help reduce waste. But a completely new technology, blockchain, is seen as a new opportunity to revolutionize agricultural supply chains.

Blockchain is the underlying technology of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but its practical applications go far beyond this. The information recorded on the distributed ledger is secure and cannot be changed; in this distributed network, the error of a single node will not affect the entire network, that is, the blockchain network is highly resilient; in addition, based on certain special settings, the content on the blockchain is visible to all users.

Blockchain and Trust

The Economist calls blockchain "a trust machine". Therefore, it can provide maximum transparency and data authenticity for the supply chain, and it can also publicly authenticate information.

There are quite a few startups that are exploring the application of blockchain technology in agriculture. One of the more famous ones is Provenance, a British B2B software company. It uses blockchain to provide quality certification services for products, including food. They are currently certifying the supply chain of Indonesian tuna so that it can be exported to Japan. They record various information about tuna (origin, etc.) and certification certificates on the blockchain, truly realizing one-click management of the supply chain, and they can control the entire process from fishing to serving on the table.

There are also other software companies that use blockchain, a readily available technology, to improve global supply chain management. Some companies are even collecting animal DNA and storing it on the blockchain. Consumers can easily access this information with just a smartphone.

BlockCrushr Labs, a Canadian startup, is committed to solving the problem of poverty. They use the advantages of Bitcoin and blockchain technology to raise funds for homeless people, while also publishing the use of funds on the blockchain.

Filament’s main product is wireless sensors. They are currently developing new sensors to monitor the health of crops and record the corresponding data on the blockchain. In addition, this sensor can also record the temperature and humidity of harvested crops. The data from these sensors will then be connected to other devices in the Internet of Things (IoT), such as transportation and storage equipment.

Skuchain mainly develops barcodes and electronic tags, which, combined with blockchain technology, can monitor point-to-point global supply chain management and prevent counterfeit and shoddy products.

Some companies have called for an end to the addition of antibiotics, preservatives and other harmful substances to food ingredients. We believe that the openness and transparency of blockchain can clearly record the origin and ingredients of food, thus truly helping to produce healthy food.

From the above proof-of-concept projects, we can see that blockchain is a permanent and effective authentication platform, and its openness and transparency can bring enough trust to consumers. Merchants no longer have to rack their brains to promote their brands. As long as there is open supply chain management on the blockchain, even unknown food brands can sell well. Of course, this concept is not limited to the agricultural field.

However, blockchain solutions also have their limitations. Such solutions also require supply chain managers to update the production process in real time. In addition, a reliable official certification system is also very important. The combination of products and supply chains also brings difficulties to the implementation of blockchain technology.

Therefore, most of the above proof-of-concept projects are high-value, low-output, and are easily affected by the personal decisions of their founders. Blockchain technology is more suitable for some mature industries, while in some small industries, its development space may be limited.

To learn more about blockchain and supply chain issues, please click on "Blockchain and Supply Chain Special Topic".