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.
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.
Supply chain traceability is one of the most promising use cases to benefit from characteristics of blockchain, such as decentralization, immutability and transparency, not required to build prior trust relationships among entities. A plethora of supply chain traceability solutions based on blockchain has been proposed recently. However, current systems are limited to tracing simple goods that have not been part of the manufacturing process. We recommend a method that allows for the traceability of manufactured goods, including their components. Products are represented using non-fungible digital tokens that are created on a blockchain for each batch of manufactured products. To create a link between a product and the components that are needed to produce it, we propose “token recipes” that define the amount of tokenized goods required for minting a new token. As input tokens are automatically and transparently consumed when creating a product token, the physical process of producing a new item out of existing components is projected onto the ledger. This ultimately leads to the complete traceability of goods, including the origin of inputs. Evaluating the performance of the system, we show that a prototypical implementation for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) scales linearly with the amount of the input and goods tracked.
Across organizations, the integration of business processes and information is crucial for all involved parties. However, the lack of trust is often a roadblock. Researches show that supply chains have incurred challenges in information sharing and trust, while trust widely works in supply chain practices and deeply affects supply chain decisions. On the other hand, Blockchain as an emerging technology for decentralized and transactional data sharing across a network of untrusted participants has appeared to have many applications. The main purpose of this research is trying to increase trust among agricultural supply chain parties to guarantee the food quality, safety and sustainability from a supply chain management perspective, and the key issue is using a decentralized technology which is not dependent on the trust of a central authority or organization for the whole supply chain. Using Design Science Research method, this research is going to develop an artifact to explore the most important trust requirements and priorities at every stage of agricultural supply chain, required to implement a blockchain information system for real-time agricultural food traceability. Special emphasis has been placed on the roles of the incorporation of the IoT in Blockchain-based solutions.
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.
Thattapon Surasak, Nungnit Wattanavichean, Chakkrit Preuksakarn, Scott C.-H.
In this paper, we successfully designed and de-veloped Thai agriculture products traceability system using blockchain and Internet of Things. Blockchain, which is the distributed database, is used for our proposed traceability system to enhance the transparency and data integrity. OurSQL is added on another layer to easier query process of blockchain database, therefore the proposed system is a user-friendly system, which cannot be found in ordinary blockchain database. The website and android application have been developed to show the tracking information of the product. The blockchain database coupling with Internet of Things give a number of benefits for our traceability system because all of the collecting information is in real-time and kept in a very secured database. Our system could have a huge impact on food traceability and supply chain management become more reliable as well as rebuild public awareness in Thailand on food safety and quality control.
Blockchain has been emerged as a promising technology for a traceability system in industry. It can also be applied to many functions of a Supply Chain Management (SCM) system, such as logistics, quality assurance, inventory management, and forecasting. One of the most important functions of the SCM is to improve the transparency, traceability and auditability of materials flow throughout the supply chain from suppliers, manufacturing facilities, warehouses/distribution centers, to customers. This research especially focuses on the impact of blockchain on supply chain traceability through the current industry applications, and its future direction.
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.
With the improvement of living standard, people begin to pay more attention to food safety and product quality. Therefore, for consumers, it is necessary to establish a reliable system that can trace the source of products. However, most existing traceability systems tend to lack transparency, data is primarily stored within the enterprise, and the cost of tampering with data is very low. Besides, the supply chain nodes are easy to evade responsibility when product safety or quality issues arise under the traditional centralized management model, and it is difficult to trace the root of issues. The development of blockchain technology provides us with new ideas for realizing the traceability of products in supply chain scenarios. Due to its characteristics of decentralization, transparency, and immutability, blockchain can be effectively used to alleviate the above problems. In this paper, we propose a product traceability system based on blockchain technology, in which all product transferring histories are perpetually recorded in a distributed ledger by using smart contracts and a chain is formed that can trace back to the source of the products. In particular, we design an event response mechanism to verify the identities of both parties of the transaction, so that the validity of the transaction can be guaranteed. And all events are permanently stored in the form of logs as a basis for handling disputes and tracking responsible entities. Furthermore, a system prototype is constructed based on the testing framework of Truffle. The contract code is deployed on a test network TestRpc that runs in local memory, and a decentralized web page interface is implemented based on the prototype. Finally, the system security analysis and experimental results show that our solution is feasible.
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.
In recent years, food safety issues have drawn growing concerns from society. In order to efficiently detect and prevent food safety problems and trace the accountability, building a reliable traceability system is indispensable. It is especially essential to accurately record, share, and trace the specific data within the whole food supply chain, including the process of production, processing, warehousing, transportation, and retail. The traditional traceability systems have issues, such as data invisibility, tampering, and sensitive information disclosure. The blockchain is a promising technology for the food safety traceability system because of the characteristics, such as the irreversible time vector, smart contract, and consensus algorithm. This paper proposes a food safety traceability system based on the blockchain and the EPC Information Services and develops a prototype system. The management architecture of on-chain & off-chain data is proposed as well, through which the traceability system can alleviate the data explosion issue of the blockchain for the Internet of Things. Furthermore, the enterprise-level smart contract is designed to prevent data tampering and sensitive information disclosure during information interaction among participants. The prototype system was implemented based on the Ethereum. According to the test results, the average time of information query response is around 2 ms, while the amount of on-chain data and query counts are 1 GB and 1000 times/s, respectively.
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.
The mining and metals industry is a critical component of the global economy. However, many operational and commercial practices remain inefficient and antiquated, leading to critical data omissions, security vulnerabilities, and even corruption. Mining supply chain faces several challenges like traceability, transparency, interoperability between supplier platforms and so on. Traditional systems are inefficient and hence this paper explores the use of an emerging digital technology named blockchain. The blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that keeps a record of every transaction securely and reliably without the need of third parties that reduces the exposure of the data to hackers. Blockchain technology improves productivity by replacing the standard contract with smart contracts. This paper outlines several key applications of blockchain for the mining industry.
Recently, Halal food has drawn remarkable attention of many consumers around the world. Besides to being unsafe, Halal food such as meat can encounter several issues throughout its supply chain and logistics. At any time, Halal integrity is not guaranteed and risks of becoming non-Halal is the major concern of all parties along the supply chain. To respond to Muslim consumers’ trust concerns in Halal food, many traceability systems were proposed in previous studies based on emerging technologies and recommended to be incorporated into Halal food supply chains. Nevertheless, all of these systems are centralized, opaque and not enough transparent. To mitigate these problems, blockchain technology is introduced as a ground-breaking innovation with greater decentralization, visibility and transparency. This paper makes a major contribution in suggesting Halal meat supply chain traceability system for real-time food tracing based on embedding Islamic dietary law into HACCP, blockchain and Internet of Things.
Tiago M. Fernández‐Caramés, Óscar Blanco-Novoa, Manuel Suárez-Albela, Paula Fraga‐Lamas
Industry 4.0 has paved the way for a world where smart factories will automate and upgrade many processes through the use of some of the latest emerging technologies. One such technology is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which have evolved a great deal in the last several years in terms of technology (e.g., control units, sensors, UAV frames) and have reduced significantly their cost. UAVs can help industry in automatable and tedious tasks, like the ones performed on a regular basis for determining the inventory and for preserving the traceability of certain items. Moreover, in such tasks, it is essential to determine whether the collected information is valid or true, especially when it comes from untrusted third-parties. In such a case, blockchain, another Industry 4.0 technology that has become very popular in other fields like finance, has the potential to provide a higher level of transparency, security, trust and efficiency in the supply chain and enable the use of smart contracts. Thus, in this paper, the design and preliminary results are presented of a UAV-based system aimed at automating the inventory and keeping the traceability of industrial items attached to Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. Such a system can use a blockchain to receive the inventory data collected by UAVs, validate them, ensure their trustworthiness and make them available to the interested parties.