Our Trust is Gone. Will Blockchain Give it Back?

By Jan Scheele on The Capital

Counterfeit eggs and shrimps, sand sold as pepper and colored sugar water as apple juice. The scandals surrounding food fraud are becoming increasingly bizarre, sometimes concerning complete products, sometimes partial. Research has shown that 43% of American salmon is incorrectly labeled, 70% of the “Italian Extra Virgin” olive oil that is not at all, and that the chicken on the Subway consists of only 50% chicken meat. In China alone, more than half a million security breaches were discovered and died worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 500,000 people died last year.

In the Netherlands, too, our trust is constantly being damaged, by the “horse steaks” and constant stream of revelations by Dutch programs such as the Keuringsdienst van Waarde on “fake” sweet mashed potatoes and liquorish.

I was therefore not surprised that various studies show, that consumers no longer trust food, its producers and sellers. In the Netherlands, according to the FNLI, more than 75% of consumers mistrust their daily meal and its ingredients and think that 30% of the labels on food are incorrect. Not to mention the various quality marks, such as Fairtrade and Beterleven. Combined with the fact that consumers are starting to live more consciously, there is increasing pressure on food producers to ensure more openness and transparency.