Transforming the food industry via distributed ledger tech

While people are more familiar with blockchain as it applies in cryptocurrency, the technology itself is seen as a promising tool for building and retaining trust, securely storing verified information and creating a decentralized environment that caters to an increasingly global market. One of its applications with the highest potential is in the food industry.

The food industry suffers from a lack of trust, with all types of food fraud causing 1 in every 10 people to fall ill every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Around 420,000 people die each year as a result of food fraud — this could be substandard, improperly handled, mislabeled, or fake food, to name a few. Blockchain technology has the potential to build trust within the food industry while ensuring the safety of food products that reach consumers’ kitchens by providing a tamper-resistant tracking system.

Tracking from farm to table

As a decentralized system with consensus verifying, blockchain technology is ideal for creating a farm-to-table tracking system that logs data starting from farmers and produce dealers who provide raw ingredients to the entities that process, create, pack, deliver or export, and store food products. Blockchain is designed to be tamper-resistant, making it a trustworthy and reliable source of information when a consumer wants to track their food sources accurately.

Tracing food sources in case of recall

In the US alone, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalls over 100 million units of food every quarter, with prepared foods taking the largest percentage of recalls. The FDA also states microbiological contamination as the most common reason for food recalls. With blockchain-based producer-to-table tracking, it’s easy to see where food could have been contaminated, where it may have been mishandled or stored improperly — holding all units down the food supply chain accountable. This will encourage food institutions to implement food safety procedures more stringently while protecting the health and safety of consumers.

Identifying ingredients

Food allergy affects 2.5% of the general population. In the United States alone, approximately 15 million Americans have allergies to specific types of food. This is why proper labeling is important — it could mean life or death for those with allergies, especially ones prone to severe reactions or anaphylactic shock. Tracking the food production process through blockchain lets consumers determine whether or not they can consume a specific product safely, serving as a more reliable source of ingredient and food preparation information than labels.

Verifying authenticity

Adulteration is a pervasive problem in the food industry. A New York-based firm reveals just how much — fraud is discovered 70% of the time during their investigations, but one place stands out as the worst: China. Both the largest consumer and producer of adulterated and falsified food products, China has an almost 100% rate of food fraud, which is alarming considering how much food they export worldwide. Blockchain technology can help verify the origin of each product and whether they have ingredients from verified suppliers, and by requiring each supplier to log their information into the chain, the food industry can avoid falsification and significantly reduce the consumption of fake food.

It’s clear that blockchain technology presents a promising solution to the problem of trust and accuracy in the food industry. Its applications could grow as the technology matures but for now, we are presented with a solution that is more reliable and more tamper-resistant than any law or system we have in place right now — and, at a time when food fraud is becoming a global problem, it is a technology worth pursuing.

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