Trusted Information Collection Mechanism for Short-Shelf-Life Food Supply Chains Based on Lightweight Blockchain

Abstract

Short-shelf-life foods have received increasing attention in daily dietary practices due to their freshness and convenience. Compared with other food categories, they impose more stringent requirements on quality assurance and end-to-end traceability. To address the challenge of balancing timeliness in high-frequency real-time data collection with the authenticity of trusted information flow in short-shelf-life food supply chains, this paper proposes a trusted information collection mechanism based on lightweight blockchain technology. First, a multi-layer collaborative architecture is designed, encompassing the perception layer, edge gateway, blockchain layer, and application layer. By integrating off-chain storage with on-chain indexing, the mechanism effectively alleviates the storage and computational burden on the main blockchain. Second, the edge gateway layer incorporates a zero-knowledge interval proof module, enabling real-time, localized privacy compliance statements for sensitive data. Meanwhile, the blockchain layer adopts an PoA consensus mechanism, whereby authorized nodes perform rapid data verification and deposition. Finally, through theoretical analysis and simulation-based validation, the results demonstrate that the proposed mechanism not only enhances the real-time performance, authenticity, and privacy protection of data in short-shelf-life food supply chains, but also achieves high operational efficiency and scalability. This work thus provides a novel theoretical foundation and practical approach for trusted information collection in the context of short-shelf-life food supply chains.