Due to an increase in agricultural mislabeling and carelesshandling of non-perishable foods in recent years, consumers have been calling for the food sector to be more transparent. Due to information dispersion between divisions and the propensity to record inaccurate data, current traceability solutions typically fail to provide reliable farm-to-fork histories ofproducts. The three most enticing characteristics of blockchain technology areopenness, integrity, and traceability, which make it a potentially crucial tool for guaranteeing the integrity and correctness of data. In this paper, we suggest a permissioned blockchain system run by organizations, such as regulatory bodies, to promote the origin-tracking of shelf-stable agricultural products. We propose a four-tiered architecture, parallel side chains, Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), and Interplanetary File Systems (IPFS). These ensure that information about where an item came from is shared, those commercial competitors cannot get to it, those big storage problems are handled, and the system can be scaled to handle many transactions at once. Thesolution maintains the confidentiality of all transaction flows whenprovenance data is queried utilizing smart contracts and a consumer-grade reliance rate. Extensive simulation testing using Ethereum Rinkeby and Polygon demonstrates reduced execution time, latency, and throughput overheads.
In agri-food supply chains (ASC), consumers purchase agri-food goods from farmers. During this process, customers emphasize the need for agri-food safety, while producers hope to enhance their revenues. Due to the dynamism and complexity of the Bangladesh ASC, the traceability and control of agri-food goods encounter formidable obstacles. Due to their reliance on intermediaries, legal financial hurdles, Ethereum-based financial solutions, etc., however, most existing solutions cannot adequately meet the traceability and management needs of Bangladesh ASC. To solve these issues, the authors proposed an integrated Agri-food supply chain (IASC) model. In this study, a systematic review of the literature was conducted using a thematic analysis method. In a portion of the model, the authors depicted a linear physical flow to illustrate the relationship and function of intermediaries and to explain Bangladesh ASC’s dependence on intermediaries. The approach incorporates Blockchain technology and IoT to promote transparency, minimize mistake, prevent product delays, remove unethical and illegal actions, improve supply chain (SC) management, track the whereabouts of the goods, and eventually increase consumer and supplier trust. The article also mentions that crypto currency-based financial transactions between stakeholders in the supply chain are now unlawful in Bangladesh. For blockchain API, a mobile banking and digital payment-based solution has been proposed. Finally, the blockchain-based Hyperledger Sawtooth API has been suggested so that clients can trace the entire history of a product by scanning the QR code on the packaging. Since Bangladesh’s economy is primarily based on agriculture, this research can assist in boosting Bangladesh’s economy. The paper would also contribute to the reduction of corruption and the improvement of firmer/grower and consumer satisfaction. The findings also pave the way for future studies to implement blockchain technology in ASC without relying on Ethereum-based financial flow solutions.
Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger that guarantees the immutability of data and asset tracking. Its characteristics can result in an improvement to traditional agri-food Supply Chains. Blockchain-based traceability systems let producers improve their visibility and consumers trust the products they buy and where they come from. Actual literature lacks an exhaustive analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of Blockchain applied to the agri-food domain. This paper aims to overcome this issue: to understand the state-of-the-art related to the application of Blockchain in the agri-food sector, we screened 183 papers and performed a literature review answering six Research Questions. The work takes into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of implementing such paradigm, with an analysis on the role of industries. The main findings are related to research directions: they regard the lack of training both for industries and stakeholders, the involvement of additional technologies (i.e., Big Data, Edge Computing), and the absence of supporting tools for developers.
Tracing the origin of the product in the agriculture supply chain offers food safety, identifying the root cause of the food hazard if any, information connectivity between the participating stakeholders and to achieve customer trust. Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology whose transactions can be recorded in a decentralised and immutable ledger. Several applications were developed in the last few years for blockchain based - traceability systems. Most of the work concentrated on information retrieval and system scalability. Still, promising research has not been seen for a blockchain traceability system with user identification methods. This work presents a blockchain system with user identification and access control mechanisms to fill the gap for each supply chain participant. In addition, the system also proposes a novel Proof of Transaction (PoTx) consensus algorithm designed to achieve scalability with reduced communication overhead and computation power. A novel PoTx algorithm is developed by choosing a random validator from a consensus group based on the transaction count to enforce the fault-tolerance of the system. The proposed system with user identification method allows to prevent and identify product adulteration while tracing the agriculture product.
Cristian Valencia-Payan, Jos�Fernando Grass-Ram韗ez, Gustavo Ramírez-González, Juan Carlos Corrales
Traditionally, food sustainability has been considered solely in the stage of agricultural production. However, globalization, the expansion of the food production industry, and the emergence of supermarket chains that control the retail food market require specific significant changes in supply chains in the food sector and, therefore, we need to address the economic, social, and environmental impacts of these events. On the other hand, social selling has increased rapidly in recent years, with a further boom, following current events related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This explosion of social sales, where there are usually no control and regulation entities, can bring problems associated with mishandling items. In this paper, we expose how Blockchain technology supports the traceability of social sales by validating the data provided by the chain participants such as digital health passports, production and transport data in the sale process; the proposed solution generates recommendations on product management considering the agreements previously made by the network actors. To evaluate the proposed smart contracts, we use Hyperledger Caliper, obtaining an average throughput of 12.6 transactions per second and an average latency of 0.3 s for the asset update process. We also use a study case to evaluate the proposed project platform’s selling-transport stage using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
Aiming at the problems such as slow traceability efficiency, poor sharing, and the difficulty of matching the throughput of a blockchain single chain structure due to the complexity of the grain food supply chain links, the large number of participants, and the large amount of data information, this paper proposes a grain food blockchain traceability information management model based on the master-slave multichain structure by analyzing the processes and data characteristics of each link in the grain food supply chain; on this basis, the PLEW consensus algorithm based on Raft + improved PoW algorithm is designed for the master chain, and the CI-PBFT consensus algorithm based on trusted information degree is designed for the slave chain. The master chain and slave chain are anchored to each other through hash locking, and the data is uploaded and queried through smart contracts. In order to verify the effectiveness of the model, the blockchain traceability system is designed and implemented based on Hyperledger Fabric2.2. At the same time, it is compared with the transaction throughput and traceability efficiency of the blockchain single chain structure. Through the safety analysis of the data information of a company in Hubei, the results show that the grain traceability system designed and implemented in this study has certain advantages over the blockchain single chain structure in all aspects. It can also solve the grain food security problems that consumers worry about, and provide reference for the research of grain blockchain traceability information management.
Aditi Saha, Rakesh D. Raut, Vinay Surendra Yadav, Abhijit Majumdar
The food supply chain (FSC), being a complex network, faces major issues such as traceability, food security, safety and sustainability. Blockchain technology (BLCT) is regarded as an innovative technology that can transform FSC by means of its traceable, irrevocable, tamperproof network. BLCT being a new technology, little work has been carried out on the FSC domain. The purpose of the study is to examine the most recent trends, benefits, challenges, and application of BLCT in the FSC and explore the comprehensive adoption and application of BLCT, stating how it helps to achieve a triple bottom line (TBL) and net zero in the supply chain. The methodology used in this article is a systematic literature review (SLR) comprising 55 papers spanning the years 2018 to 2022. The findings of the study state that BLCT helps to achieve food safety, security, and traceability and increases the performance of the FSC. It also contributes to achieving the TBL of sustainability which can further help to achieve net zero. Based on this work’s insight and observations, practitioners and academics can better understand how companies can implement BLCT and achieve TBL benefits in the FSC, which could eventually provide a path to achieving net zero.
Ch G V N Prasad, A. Mallareddy, M. Pounambal, Vijayasherly Velayutham
The advancement of Internet-based technologies has made huge progress toward improving the accessibility of "smart agriculture." With the advent of unmanned and automatic management, smart agriculture is now able to accomplish monitoring, supervision, and real-time picture monitoring. It is not possible to know for sure that the data in a smart agriculture system is complete and secure from intrusion. This article investigates and assesses the potential of edge computing and blockchain for use in smart agriculture. We combine the advantages of blockchain technology and the edge computing framework to create a smart agriculture framework system that is based on a very straightforward analysis of the evolution of smart agriculture. The study proposes a thorough method for emphasizing the significance of agriculture and edge computing, as well as the advantages of incorporating blockchain technology in this context. This paper also proposes an intelligent agricultural product traceability system design: edge computing with blockchain for smart agriculture. The study concludes with a discussion of outstanding problems and difficulties that can arise during the creation of a blockchain-based edge computing system for smart agriculture systems.
Purpose This study explores the influence of the following factors on consumer adoption of blockchain food traceability (BFT): innovation-adoption characteristics, segmentation, expertise in food traceability, expertise in blockchain technology, food categorical preferences and perceived important features of BFT. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected via an online questionnaire with 1,401 participants in New Zealand. Exploratory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and segmentation analysis were undertaken. Findings Consumer adoption of blockchain food traceability was significantly influenced by two innovation-adoption characteristics – perceived incentives and perceived complexity, as well as their expertise in food traceability. Two consumer segments were identified: Conservatives (48%) and Pioneers (52%). Significant differences were found between these two segments in terms of gender, age, education, occupation, residential area and ethnicity. Consumers are more willing to use BFT for purchasing fresh, imported, staple and normal foods than for processed, domestic and upscale foods. Their perceived important specific features of BFT are product origin, food safety information, quality control, food safety information, hygienic condition and scarcity management. Originality/value This study contributes knowledge to address the current knowledge gap regarding consumer adoption of blockchain food traceability by using a large sample set. It is also the first study to recognise consumer segments for BFT; to provide information about consumers' important socio-demographic characteristics, food categorical preferences and perceived important features towards BFT; and to explore the influences of consumers' innovation-adoption characteristics, expertise in food traceability and expertise in blockchain technology on their adoption of blockchain food traceability.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 and the Russia Ukraine war has had a great impact on the rice supply chain. Compared with other grain supply chains, rice supply chain has more complex structure and data. Using digital means to realize the dynamic supervision of rice supply chain is helpful to ensure the quality and safety of rice. This study aimed to build a dynamic supervision model suited to the circulation characteristics of the rice supply chain and implement contractualization, analysis, and verification. First, based on an analysis of key information in the supervision of the rice supply chain, we built a dynamic supervision model framework based on blockchain and smart contracts. Second, under the logical framework of a regulatory model, we custom designed three types of smart contracts: initialization smart contract, model-verification smart contract, and credit-evaluation smart contract. To implement the model, we combined an asymmetric encryption algorithm, virtual regret minimization algorithm, and multisource heterogeneous fusion algorithm. We then analyzed the feasibility of the algorithm and the model operation process. Finally, based on the dynamic supervision model and smart contract, a prototype system is designed for example verification. The results showed that the dynamic supervision model and prototype system could achieve the real-time management of the rice supply chain in terms of business information, hazard information, and personnel information. It could also achieve dynamic and credible supervision of the rice supply chain's entire life cycle at the information level. This new research is to apply information technology to the digital management of grain supply chain. It can strengthen the digital supervision of the agricultural product industry.
In the past few decades, food fraud and safety issues have given rise to growing concerns from the society. With the purpose of efficiently detecting and preventing food safety problems and tracing the accountability, the establishment of a reliable traceability system is indispensable. For a traditional traceability system, the support of blockchain technology can effectively remove its defects in terms of data tampering and sensitive information disclosure. The paper looks into different respects such as facts identified as food fraud, factors suitable for detecting food fraud, deficiencies of blockchain application in solving food safety problems, etc., using research methods of questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview. The finding is that although blockchain is a promising technology for the food safety traceability system on account of its possession of features such as tamper-resistance and distributed ledger technology, the application of this technology in food safety protection at current stage is faced with many challenges on the way to universalization, which still needs the effort of the government and influential associations to set up laws and regulations and tackle issues concerning trust of the blockchain network and the authenticity of original data.
In today's globalized world, there is no transparency in exchanging data and information between producers and consumers. However, these tasks experience many challenges, such as administrative barriers, confidential data leakage, and extensive time delays. To overcome these challenges, we propose a decentralized, secured, and verified smart chain framework using Ethereum Smart Contract which employs Inter Planetary File Systems (IPFS) and MongoDB as storage systems to automate the process and exchange information into blocks using the Tendermint algorithm. The proposed work promotes complete traceability of the product, ensures data integrity and transparency in addition to providing security to their personal information using the Lelantos mode of shipping. The Tendermint algorithm helps to speed up the process of validating and authenticating the transaction quickly. More so in this time of pandemic, it is easier to meet the needs of customers through the Ethermint Smart Chain, which increases customer satisfaction, thus boosting their confidence. Moreover, Smart contracts help to exploit more international transaction services and provide an instant block time finality of around 5 sec using Ethermint. The paper concludes with a description of product storage and distribution adopting the Ethermint technique. The proposed system was executed based on the Ethereum-Tendermint Smart chain. Experiments were conducted on variable block sizes and the number of transactions. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system seems to perform better than existing blockchain-based systems. Two configuration files were used, the first one was to describe the storage part, including its topology. The second one was a modified file to include the test rounds that Caliper should execute, including the running time and the workload content. Our findings indicate this is a promising technology for food supply chain storage and distribution.
Gain and oil are important compounds in global food supplies, and ensuring the quality and safety of grains and oil is a critical issue in the food supply chain security. Data traceability is the key factor in quality and safety management. Currently, it is a big challenge to ensure the reliability of data and guarantee the efficient exchange of data in various highly heterogeneous systems. To address this challenge, we develop a reliable traceability model applied to the grain and oil industry. In this paper, we first analyze the characteristics of the whole chain traceability information flow, and then we propose the concept that the connector for blockchain and industrial internet is suitable for data traceability in the grain and oil industry. Based on this concept, a reliable traceability model of grain and oil quality and safety is constructed. Finally, a reliable traceability prototype system for wheat quality and safety was designed, and the system implementation of the model was validated. The overall advantage of the proposed model is that the traceability information is safe and credible, the interaction is concise and efficient, and the security and full-process traceability of cross-chain information interaction are guaranteed. This paper fills the gap in the application of research chain network in the field of grain and oil traceability. Reference to this model can also be used to implement and adjust the traceability system, which is adaptable to stakeholders in the grain and oil industry. The model and techniques in this paper not only demonstrate value in real-world applications but also inspire further research in the field.
Blockchain-based traceability systems are a promising approach because they are decentralized, transparent, and tamper proof; however, if all traceability data are uploaded to a blockchain platform, it may affect the efficiency or even lead to data explosion. Additionally, it is difficult to guarantee the reliability of the original data source of massive Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Furthermore, when different enterprise nodes adopt different data storage structures, the costs that are associated with data sharing will increase. In this paper, we have proposed a trustworthy product traceability system that is based on hyperledger fabric and Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS), which is not only capable of making products traceable, but it can also authenticate and authorize the IoT devices that are used for data collection. First, we adopted the on-chain and off-chain collaborative management mechanism in order to alleviate data explosion on the chain. Second, we proposed a scheme to authenticate and authorize devices based on blockchain. Third, we complied with EPCIS and Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) standards and provided the EPCIS location discovery service in order to improve the interactivity. Finally, we implemented and tested the proposed traceability system and compared it with the existing research. The proposed solution provides product information traceability, data tamper proofing, data confidentiality, and data source reliability.
Alejandro Javier García, Javier A. Dávila, Lenis Wong
The value of coffee is decreasing in the international market caused by the poor traceability that coffee cooperatives offer to the rest of the public in the production chain. There are paper records or storage in centralized databases of the details of the product that is delivered and received at each stage, generating high cost and inefficiency in paper-based processes, fraud, corruption and errors in both processes. Other investigations pose the problem proposing solutions with opportunities to improve. A framework is proposed to improve the traceability of the coffee production chain using blockchain. The proposed framework is composed of 3 phases: (1) Blockchain architecture design, (2) Smart contracts design and (3) Web application design. Blockchain technology is used to guarantee immutable traceability of the production chain. The proposed framework was validated in a coffee cooperative located in Cajamarca (Peru) applying 2 experiments and a survey based on expert opinion. The results show that with the proposed framework, time of process and the number of errors can be reduced in the defined scenarios, where in turn a reduction of 99.87% of the time in the generation of coffee traceability is evidenced. In addition, the results of the survey show that the “performance”, “traceability parameters” and “usability” of the system have an average value of 4.6 (Value close to 5).
Currently, the composition and structure of the production industry's supply chain is becoming increasingly complex. The loss and untimely transmission of supply chain information exacerbated the bullwhip effect. At the same time, due to the lack of a reliable repository of information, difficulties in traceability and accountability have also made supply chain management difficult. Blockchain has the characteristics of supporting distributed networks, synchronization of information between nodes, digital encryption, traceable information and unforgeable block content, which is suitable for use in supply chain and can provide a solution for it. In this paper, a design scheme of an integrated platform for information services provided by supply chain participants and based on the Ethereum blockchain is proposed. Using Ethereum smart contracts, the regular trade involved in the supply chain is realized using blockchain technology, and key information about the production and circulation of the supply chain is stored on the blockchain to ensure that the information cannot be falsified. At the same time, a reputation evaluation method based on smart contracts is used to evaluate the reputation of enterprises in the supply chain, which can provide references for supplier selection among enterprises.
Juan Carlos López-Pimentel, Miguel Alcaraz-Rivera, Rafael Granillo Macías, Elìas Olivares-Benítez
Currently, the Mexican avocado supply chain has some social limitations that make the traceability process a difficult task and severely limits the regions that can add their harvest to the international market. We hypothesize that modernizing the traceability process and improving the trust of the final user could help in opening the market to other regions. This paper describes the Mexican avocado supply chain characteristics, identifies the actors involved in the supply chain, and emphasizes the problems that the current actors have when exporting them to the US market. On this basis, we propose a technological solution system to automate the traceability process. The system was designed to comply with the authority and consumer requirements. It proposes a combination of the benefits of traditional data traceability using Microservices architecture with a new layer of Blockchain auditing that will add value to current and new actors in every step of the supply chain. We contribute by proposing a model that adds value to the avocado supply chain with the following characteristics: Integrity, auditing service, dual traceability, transparency, and a front-end application with trust user-oriented. Our proofs demonstrate that the blockchain layer does not represent a considered high extra transaction cost; it could be regarded as despicable for the economy of the consumer considering costs and benefits.
Sukrutha L. T. Vangipuram, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos, Chittaranjan Ray
It is a known fact that large quantities of farm and meat products rot and are wasted if correct actions are not taken, which may lead to serious health issues if consumed. There is no proper system for tracking and communicating the status of the goods to their respective stakeholders in a secure way. Consumers have every right to know the quality of the products they consume. Using monitoring tools, such as the Internet of Agricultural Things (IoAT), and modern data protection techniques for storing and sharing, will help mitigate data integrity issues during the transmission of sensor records, increasing the data quality. The visibility state at the customer end is also improved, and they are aware of the agricultural product's conditions throughout the real-time distribution process. In this paper, we developed and implemented a CorDapp application to manage the data for the supply chain, called "agroString". We collected the temperature and humidity data using IoAT-Edge devices and various datasets from multiple sources. We then sent those readings to the CorDapp agroString and successfully shared them among the relevant parties. With the help of a Corda private blockchain, we attempted to increase data integrity, trust, visibility, provenance, and quality at each logistic step, while decreasing blockchain and central system limitations.
In today's scenario, blockchain technology is an emerging area and promising technology in the field of the food supply chain industry (FSCI). A literature survey comprising an analytical review of blockchain technology with the Internet of things (IoT) for food supply chain management (FSCM) is presented to better understand the associated research benefits, issues, and challenges. At present, with the concept of farm-to-fork gaining increasing popularity, food safety and quality certification are of critical concern. Blockchain technology provides the traceability of food supply from the source, i.e., the seeding factories, to the customer's table. The main idea of this paper is to identify blockchain technology with the Internet of things (IoT) devices to investigate the food conditions and various issues faced by transporters while supplying fresh food. Blockchain provides applications such as smart contracts to monitor, observe, and manage all transactions and communications among stakeholders. IoT technology provides approaches for verifying all transactions; these transactions are recorded and then stored in a centralized database system. Thus, IoT enables a safe and cost-effective FSCM system for stakeholders. In this paper, we contribute to the awareness of blockchain applications that are relevant to the food supply chain (FSC), and we present an analysis of the literature on relevant blockchain applications which has been conducted concerning various parameters. The observations in the present survey are also relevant to the application of blockchain technology with IoT in other areas.
In Tunisia, one of the major problems of the olive oil industry is marketing. Several factors have an impact, such as quality, originality, lobbying, subsidies and the certification of extra virgin olive oil. The major problem remains the traceability of the production process to guarantee the origin of the food at all times. This fine-grained traceability can be achieved by applying Blockchain technologies. Blockchain can be used as a solution that could bring visibility to the oil supply chain. It is proposed in order to guarantee the veracity of the product information at different stages. In this paper, a multi-Blockchain, multi-sensor traceability system using IoT will be presented. Two Blockchains that can be programmed via Smart Contract will be used. The first one is Quorum, which is a private Blockchain used by the actors of our system, and the second one is Ethereum, which is public and connects the different actors who have access to our system. This smart contract allows us to conta our system to track the olive oil manufacturing process from the farmer, through the oil mill, the transporter and the quality controller to the customer. A general approach for managing the olive oil supply chain is presented. This approach offers the possibility for the system to be configurable. It is based on smart contracts and applications that interact with the same smart contracts. The IoT is used to configure sensors. These sensors are the source of data for the supply chain process. These sensors are connected to the embedded platforms that host Quorum.
Supply chain traceability refers to product tracking from the source to customers, demanding transparency, authenticity, and high efficiency. In recent years, blockchain has been widely adopted in supply chain traceability to provide transparency and authenticity, while the efficiency issue is understudied. In practice, as the numerous product records accumulate, the time- and storage- efficiencies will decrease remarkably. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first work studying the efficiency issue in blockchain-based supply chain traceability. Compared to the traditional method, which searches the records stored in a single chunk sequentially, we replicate the records in multiple chunks and employ parallel search to boost the time efficiency. However, allocating the record searching primitives to the chunks with maximized parallelization ratio is challenging. To this end, we model the records and chunks as a bipartite graph and solve the allocation problem using a maximum matching algorithm. The experimental results indicate that the time overhead can be reduced by up to 85.1% with affordable storage overhead.
To tackle the problems of questioning the authenticity of products faced in e-commerce live streaming and the low data integrity in the process of product transactions, the concept of traceability and a product authentication scheme that integrates blockchain technology and traceability are proposed. The proposed scheme deploys the product authentication strategy on the Ethereum blockchain in the form of a smart contract and calls the product authentication method on the traceability body by executing the smart contract to realize the authentication of product quality. A combination of on-chain and off-chain is used to store private information to guarantee information integrity. Security analysis results show that the proposed scheme can make the risk of information leakage lower and data security higher under the premise of achieving product certification. A system simulation experiment shows that the solution can meet product certification requirements and have a favorable impact on the live commerce industry.