By Matheus Darós Pagani
CEO of 4CADIA Foundation
Knowing the origin of the things you eat is now becoming a priority for millions of people around the world — either because one wants gives preference for eating organic products or products free of animal origins, or due to health issues. This worry is not baseless, since illnesses derived from ingesting poorly stored food or of dubious origins are responsible for the death of 420,000 people every year. In 2017, according to the World Health Organization, 1 out of 10 people (or 600 million people) around the globe got ill because of this kind of problem
In a world more and more connected, knowing from where what one eats come from can be important to prevent illnesses in the long run. The legislations ruling the use of pesticides or the handling of fish are not the same in every country, and the effectiveness of ruling and certifying agencies varies from place to place. Even though there has been a great effort toward the standardization of the food chain, especially in developed countries, it is very hard to keep control of the quality of the foods that make it to the supermarket shelf or even to the table of the consumer.
To a vast number of people interested in a conscious consumption of food, this issue is even more critical. For instance, consumers that eat organic foods on a regular basis are particularly prone to frauds and carelessness, since products of different origins can get mixed somewhere in the supply chain by a dishonest or unqualified intermediate, thus jeopardizing the purity of the product. The environmental preoccupation with fishing activities in preservation areas and with food produced with transgenic seeds have also helped to underline the importance of problems with information asymmetry.
To food-producing companies who want to stand out in the market in terms of production, storage and distribution, it is essential to have a reliable distribution system. In a world where supply chains have ascended to a world sphere, this means that producers now to handle with a very large quantity of intermediates, besides high costs with bureaucracies, different regulations and inspection procedures. All this greatly increases the risk of fraud and mishandling, which generates uncertainty and thus jeopardizes the reputation of serious companies.
Tracking with effectiveness the food in the supply chain is therefore a priority in this globalized world. To solve this kind of problem, blockchain solutions are now being used by an ever-increasing number of companies as a manner to overcome the trust problem provoked by the presence of a large quantity of intermediates.
The blockchain structure possibilities that one of the parts involved in the production of any given kind of food have access to data-points on the Web. These data-points, by their turn, can provide exact information about where they have been and for how long they were stored there. Hash-branded packages or boxes can provide real-time access to their locations, making clear who handled the product and for how long each intermediate was responsible for that product. Each package receives a unique number, which warrants inviolability and trust to those who produce the food, those who sell the food, and those who consume the food.
In the case of foods that need highly strict storage procedures, IoT-connected electronic sensors in each package can be useful in tracking the temperature, humidity, luminosity, and other storage conditions all across the supply chain. Through a blockchain-based system, it is possible to know if a truck-driver turned off the refrigerator of the truck to save energy, if the shipment was hurt due to a bad shipping, or if a distributor is not acting accord to the expected standards of quality.
For sure, the most accessed blockchain app so far is IBM’s Food Trust, based on the Hyperledger Fabric protocol, which has won the preference of giants such as Carrefour, Nestlé, Kroger and Unilever. However, other industry actors perceived the potential in developing new apps. Recently, Carrefour and Nestle have introduced an app that allows the tracking of milk. Therefore, there is a whole universe of solutions to be explored in this field.
There is an enormous potential to be explored by companies and people, bringing transparency and eliminating frauds. The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the workmen are few.
