The growing global population and the consequential increasing food demand have had a great impact on the environment and thus on the climate. Efforts are being made to reduce carbon footprint to mitigate such effects. Calculating the carbon footprint of food products is complex and requires the cooperation of all the stakeholders of the food supply chain. A record keeping system for tracking carbon footprint while preserving privacy for the related parties is needed. This paper presents a new implementation of blockchain for tracking of carbon footprint on food production and transportation stages. We designed a system that tracks the carbon footprint of food processing facilities and transportation parties using cluster-based record keeping while preserving their privacy. We implemented the proposed carbon footprint chain and evaluated its throughput and latency under different scenarios. We show that our blockchain implementation is capable of operating with a larger number of nodes without any scalability issues.
Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies
Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
To address food insecurity and achieve efficient food recall, many technologies have been investigated in recent years. One of the most promising technologies is Blockchain, which already been successfully used in financial aspects such as bitcoin, is attracting interests from food supply chain management. As blockchain has characteristics such as decentralization, security, immutability, smart contract, it is therefore expected to improve sustainable food supply chain management and food traceability. This paper uses content analysis methods to carry out a comprehensive systematic literature review in blockchain adoption within food supply chain. We proposed four propositions and five potential challenges.
Traceability of ingredients in food supply chains has become paramount in a world in which markets become global, heterogeneous, and complex and in which consumers expect a high level of quality. The food supply chain consists of many organizations having different interests and are often reluctant to share traceability information with each other. Blockchain has been advocated for improving traceability by providing trust. Yet, practice proved to be more stubborn. The goal of this paper is to identify boundary conditions for sharing assurance information to improve traceability. Four cases in the food supply chain have been investigated using a template analysis of 16 interviews. Eighteen boundary conditions categorized in business, regulation, quality and traceability categories have been identified. Some boundary conditions were found in all supply chains, whereas others were found to be supply chain specific. Standardization of traceability processes and interfaces, having a joint platform and independent governance were found to be key boundary conditions before blockchain can be used. Our findings imply that supply chain systems have first to be modified and organizational measures need to be taken to fulfill the boundary conditions, before blockchain can be used successfully.
Blockchain technology has a potential to address many of the food safety challenges facing the world today. Some of the most promising blockchain applications developed to data have been in the food supply chains.
This paper proposes a generic agri-food supply chain traceability system based on blockchain technology implementing the "from-farm-to-fork" (F2F) model currently used in the European Union, which can integrate current traceability rules and processes. The proposed system allows the consumer to reconstruct the product history up to the origin in order to verify product health and quality by simple QR code scan. The blockchain chosen for this purpose is Hyperledger Sawtooth, issued with writing permissions and rules to guarantee access only to members recognized as legitimate participants in the process. The whole system has been realized according to an agile methodology (ABCDE), recently devised for designing a general blockchain system with software engineering practices by mean of User Stories and UML diagrams, in order to obtain a higher software quality. All of the involved operators are able to identify any participants along the entire supply chain, increasing the degree of trust between organizations and individuals, with autonomous management of temporal sequence of activities.
Ricardo Borges dos Santos, Nunzio Marco Torrisi, Erick Reyann Kasai Yamada, Rodrigo Palucci Pantoni
The use of smart contracts and blockchain tokens to implement a consumer trustworthy ingredient certification scheme for commingled foods, i.e., recipe based, food products is described. The proposed framework allows ingredients that carry any desired property (including social or environmental customer perceived value) to be certified by any certification authority, at the moment of harvest or extraction, using the IGR Ethereum token. The mechanism involves the transfer of tokens containing the internet url published at the authority’s web site from the farmer all along the supply chain to the final consumer at each transfer of custody of the ingredient using the Cricital Tracking Event/Key Data Elements (CTE/KDE) philosophy of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). This allows the end consumer to easily inspect and be assured of the origin of the ingredient by means of a mobile application. A successful code implementation of the framework was deployed, tested and is running as a beta version on the Ethereum live blockchain as the IGR token. The main contribution of the framework is the possibility to ensure the true origin of any instance or lot of ingredient within a recipe to the customer, without harming the food processor legitimate right to protect its recipes and suppliers.
Sana Shaikh, Mitali Butala, Rhea Butala, Mitchelle Creado
Food touches everyone and everywhere. Food Transparency is a major problem this world has. When you pickup packed chicken and chocolate or avocado at your grocery store how can you be sure about its origin, "Where did it grow?", "How was it packed?", and "For how long was it shipped?", "Is it really organic and local?". These questions must be asked as food fraud is rampant in the largely unregulated organic and farmer market industry and there aren't much rules protecting shoppers from being duped by false claims and fraudulent products sold at premium prices. With the increasingly global nature of food and trade it is difficult to know where the food came from. This proposed system empowers customers, farmers and distributors with the blockchain. Blockchain records all transactions with each record being permission based with trust and transparency built in. This proposed system can achieve absolute trust and food traceability like never before.
Farmers need to be efficient and dedicate a lot of time in order to sustain the quality of their animals which are in their care. The most convenient and good quality - price ratio should be chosen for the feed of animals. Blockchain is used in a virtual space to store and share information over a network of users. This is done using the open source Hyperledger Fabric platform. The transactions can be viewed by all the other users in real time. These transactions are stored as JSONs inside CouchDB NoSQL database which supports queries on a large volume of data. When using this technology, the farmer can know with whom the supplier for animal feed collaborated with. The history of the transactions are not saved in just one place. In this way, it is more difficult to hack and provide implausible information. An e-learning platform was created where the farm's user can post information, respectively new blocks about the animal's birth, vaccinations, medicines, including the location of the livestock. The same e-learning platform is accessible from the mobile phone. By using the blockchain technology, anyone, including the client from the shop can know a lot about the origin of the products. Fake origins of food are much more difficult to hide. Fraud is also limited. The system monitored the traceability of dairy products inside a Romanian farm. Data about fodder provider and quality, cow productive performances and health and dairy products process were obtained and analyzed by students who will become specialists at all the levels of the food chain. Blockchain is the technology which in case of a dairy products contamination, the origin of the farm is traced in just a couple of seconds. In this way just a batch of dairy products is removed from distribution, leading to the reduction of food waste.
Low quality agricultural products are added to the market daily. Over usage of chemicals in the production process, use of uncertified chemicals and mechanisms for preservation and ripening processes, are the major issues that impact on agricultural product's quality as well as overall health of the consumers. Mechanisms to identify the quality of the agricultural products are highly demanded due to the lack of transparency in the current process. Blockchain technology is emerging as a decentralized and secure infrastructure which can replace involvement of a third party to verify the transactions within the system. The purpose of the research was to implement a Blockchain based solution to verify the food quality and the origin of the agricultural supply chain. A public Blockchain concept was selected instead of a private Blockchain in this study to ensure transparency by allowing any person to access the network. Instances of the smart contract were created for each physical product and deployed to Blockchain network. A Quick Response code which contained the address of the instance, was a reference to the virtual product. All the actors who are involved in the supply chain must be able to interact with the system to achieve the transparency. Each transaction and events related to a product is validated by peers of the Blockchain system. Product ownership was changed for each relevant transaction. A token-based mechanism was used to indicate the farmers' reputation with their products. Farmers could place a certification request regarding their products and, they can gain reputation tokens for each certification done by peers. A unique Quick Response code was used to identify each product within the supply chain. The proposed system has been implemented as a prototype and validated within the study.
Simon Pearson, David May, Georgios Leontidis, Mark Swainson · 10 authors
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), such as blockchain, has the potential to transform supply chains. It can provide a cryptographically secure and immutable record of transactions and associated metadata (origin, contracts, process steps, environmental variations, microbial records, etc.) linked across whole supply chains. The ability to trace food items within and along a supply chain is legally required by all actors within the chain. It is critical to food safety, underpins trust and global food trade. However, current food traceability systems are not linked between all actors within the supply chain. Key metadata on the age and process history of a food is rarely transferred when a product is bought and sold through multiple steps within the chain. Herein, we examine the potential of massively scalable DLT to securely link the entire food supply chain, from producer to end user. Under such a paradigm, should a food safety or quality issue ever arise, authorized end users could instantly and accurately trace the origin and history of any particular food item. This novel and unparalleled technology could help underpin trust for the safety of all food, a critical component of global food security. In this paper, we investigate the (i) data requirements to develop DLT technology across whole supply chains, (ii) key challenges and barriers to optimizing the complete system, and (iii) potential impacts on production efficiency, legal compliance, access to global food markets and the safety of food. Our conclusion is that while DLT has the potential to transform food systems, this can only be fully realized through the global development and agreement on suitable data standards and governance. In addition, key technical issues need to be resolved including challenges with DLT scalability, privacy and data architectures.
Rural areas in developing countries have constantly been plagued by poor sanitation and energy shortages. A key issue has been the decentralized nature of waste generation and energy consumption, leading to farmers burning crop stocks, lumber, and other agricultural waste. As 1.9 billion people lack access to waste collection services [1], untreated solid and liquid refuse hamper the health of many and irreversibly damage the local ecosystem. Considering the scattered nature of agricultural waste generation and centralized treatment difficulties, this study examines the feasibility of adopting decentralized blockchain system in trading biomass energy and agricultural products across the waste-to-energy ecosystem. A case study is conducted based on the Yitong system in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, China. This plant collects and transports agricultural wastes (crop straw and animal residue), and converts them to clean energy and agricultural by-products like briquettes, fertilizer, and animal feedstock. This paper presents how a digital coupon or cryptocurrency can be introduced to trade the wastes, energy and by-products among the farmers and entrepreneurs. It argues that this system could maximize the use of agriculture wastes by incentivizing farmers and enterprises to work together. This paper covers three key areas: 1) Literature review, methodology preparation, and field assessment for introducing digital incentive mechanism to enhance rural wastes management. 2) Design of a prototype of blockchain-based model: (a) how the waste-to-energy plant managers collect the segregated waste from individual farmers through trucks connected to blockchain-based smart meters; (b) how systems on each of the trucks register the quantity of waste received onto a universal ledger when collecting. This quantity received will be translated into a certain amount of energy and products like fertilizer that the waste-to-energy plant owes each farm; and (c) how the farmers will receive digital coupons corresponding to the quantity of energy and agricultural products that they should receive. 3) Evaluation of the feasibility of blockchain-based model (technical and economic): (a) data collection on the total quantity of waste produced and the processing capabilities and availability of Waste to Energy plants; (b) assessing readiness of digital infrastructure (cyber-security and communications); and (c) economic evaluation of the incentives and responsibilities associated with the key stakeholders from the farmers to enterprises.
Geetanjali Ramesh Chandra, Iman Ali Liaqat, Bhoopesh Kumar Sharma
This paper aims to address the various challenges of the Halal Food Industry and how far the emerging Distributed Ledger Technology, Blockchain, can play a role in redefining the current system. Blockchain technology allows users to assess all transactions simultaneously and in real-time, enforcing transparency, safety, authenticity, and auditability. Blockchain along with other disruptive technologies, like IoT and AI, will allow stakeholders to retrieve the high-quality information required to make more informed choices. The Islamic teachings followed in preparation of halal food are principles not only followed by Muslims but every person soughing to have hygienic, healthy food. With the rise of the Halal Food sector, organizations must find ways to increase their supply chain efficiency and Blockchain promises to fill that gap with higher transparency and assurance of Halal compliance. A demonstration is provided to have an insight on how the Blockchain technology would shape the Halal Food Supply Chain and an experimental study is also carried out on Hyperledger Fabric Composer - Playground - to analyze how ownership of halal product may be tracked.
The issue of food traceability is one that affects a great number of sectors and policy areas. Within the EU, there is increasing demand from consumers, businesses and institutions to have more direct access to information about how food is produced, transformed, and distributed. Currently, however, practices in the industry are very much open to human error. Databases are highly vulnerable to inaccuracies and hacking, as well as deliberate faults caused by corruption or fraudulent conduct. With food traceability being so closely related to trade and public health issues, there is arguably increasing incentive for the EU to seek alternative tools to increase transparency and accountability throughout supply chains. Consequently, this paper will examine a possible alternative to current practices by evaluating the applicability of 'blockchain' technology, namely a system of digitised, decentralised ledgers, which could allow key stakeholders to access information about the provenance of food immediately, comprehensively and securely. The analysis will focus specifically on Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), one of the most adulterated products in the food industry, identifying gaps and opportunities in current traceability systems. The research question tackled in this paper, therefore, may be formulated as follows: how and to what extent could blockchain technology constitute a sustainable solution for improving the traceability of EVOO within the EU? The paper begins with a brief overview of the issue and an explanation of the research methodology used, followed by an elaboration of key terms and concepts and a detailed explanation of the principles underlying blockchain technology. Subsequently, the key challenges and opportunities associated with blockchain-based traceability systems are examined through a case study, followed by an analysis aimed at assessing the sustainability of blockchain solutions for the EVOO sector. The conclusion, lastly, provides an overview of relevant findings and proposes a final assessment.
Agriculture is responsible for feeding the whole population and farmers are its main stakeholder. However, the socio-economic condition of farmers in most countries is not good and India is not an exception. This could be seen in terms of very low per capita income of Indian farmers. Farmers often face various issues in practicing their profession which affect their status quo. To this effect, this paper identifies fourteen such issues using exhaustive literature search and Delphi Technique. These issues are categorized under four head namely lack of proper information, beneficiaries schemes, low price of agricultural produce and lack of transparency and traceability in agri-business. Further to handle these select issues; a blockchain based information system is proposed.
Andreas Kamilaris, Ian R. Cole, Francesc X. Prenafeta‐Boldú
Blockchain is an emerging digital technology allowing ubiquitous financial transactions among distributed untrusted parties, without the need of intermediaries such as banks. This chapter examines the impact of blockchain technology in agriculture and food supply chain, presents existing ongoing projects and initiatives, and discusses overall implications, challenges and potential, with a critical view over the maturity of these projects. Our findings indicate that blockchain is a promising technology towards a transparent supply chain of food, with many ongoing initiatives in various food products and food-related issues, but many barriers and challenges still exist, which hinder its wider popularity among farmers and systems. These challenges involve technical aspects, education, policies and regulatory frameworks.
Fran Casino, Venetis Kanakaris, Thomas K. Dasaklis, Socrates J. Moschuris · 5 authors
Traceability has become a critical element in supply chain management, particularly in safety-sensitive sectors like food, pharmaceuticals, etc. Upstream (manufacturers, producers, etc.) and downstream (distributors, wholesalers, etc.) supply chain members need to store and handle traceability-related information for providing proof of regulatory compliance to both state authorities and more demanding customers. More specifically, European Union regulations mandate food producers to trace all raw materials/ingredients used throughout their supply chain operations. Consumers also place high expectations on food supply chains (FSC) with specific emphasis on facets related to safety. However, the complexity of modern FSC networks and their fragmentation act as barriers for the development of sound traceability mechanisms. This paper aims to develop a distributed functional model to provide decentralized and automated FSC traceability based on blockchain technology and smart contracts. For assessing the feasibility of the proposed modeling approach, a food traceability use-case scenario is presented. The applicability of the model is further illustrated by the development of a fully functional smart contract and a local private blockchain. The overall benefits of the proposed model are assessed based on a set of predefined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The results are of significant value to both practitioners and researchers.
Yung Po Tsang, King Lun Choy, C.H. Wu, G.T.S. Ho · 5 authors
Food traceability has been one of the emerging blockchain applications in recent years, for improving the areas of anti-counterfeiting and quality assurance. Existing food traceability systems do not guarantee a high level of system reliability, scalability, and information accuracy. Moreover, the traceability process is time-consuming and complicated in modern supply chain networks. To alleviate these concerns, blockchain technology is promising to create a new ontology for supply chain traceability. However, most consensus mechanisms and data flow in blockchain are developed for cryptocurrency, not for supply chain traceability; hence, simply applying blockchain technology to food traceability is impractical. In this paper, a blockchain-IoT-based food traceability system (BIFTS) is proposed to integrate the novel deployment of blockchain, IoT technology, and fuzzy logic into a total traceability shelf life management system for managing perishable food. To address the needs for food traceability, lightweight and vaporized characteristics are deployed in the blockchain, while an integrated consensus mechanism that considers shipment transit time, stakeholder assessment, and shipment volume is developed. The data flow of blockchain is then aligned to the deployment of IoT technologies according to the level of traceable resource units. Subsequently, the decision support can be established in the food supply chain by using reliable and accurate data for shelf life adjustment, and by using fuzzy logic for quality decay evaluation.
Khaled Salah, Nishara Nizamuddin, Raja Jayaraman, M. S. Omar
The globalized production and the distribution of agriculture production bring a renewed focus on the safety, quality, and the validation of several important criteria in agriculture and food supply chains. The growing number of issues related to food safety and contamination risks has established an immense need for effective traceability solution that acts as an essential quality management tool ensuring adequate safety of products in the agricultural supply chain. Blockchain is a disruptive technology that can provide an innovative solution for product traceability in agriculture and food supply chains. Today's agricultural supply chains are complex ecosystem involving several stakeholders making it cumbersome to validate several important criteria such as country of origin, stages in crop development, conformance to quality standards, and monitor yields. In this paper, we propose an approach that leverages the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts efficiently perform business transactions for soybean tracking and traceability across the agricultural supply chain. Our proposed solution eliminates the need for a trusted centralized authority, intermediaries and provides transactions records, enhancing efficiency and safety with high integrity, reliability, and security. The proposed solution focuses on the utilization of smart contracts to govern and control all interactions and transactions among all the participants involved within the supply chain ecosystem. All transactions are recorded and stored in the blockchain's immutable ledger with links to a decentralized file system (IPFS) and thus providing to all a high level of transparency and traceability into the supply chain ecosystem in a secure, trusted, reliable, and efficient manner.