Blockchain for the Food, How Industry Makes Use of the Technology

What makes the technology so appealing for the food industry participants, and are there any obstacles that can be a hurdle to potential adoption?

"One of the primary drivers for food providers to consider blockchain technology is the ability of the technology to collect data from various sources and create a single view of the transaction? This plays an important role in the ability to track the food product back to its origin driving more efficiency when a food safety issue arises."

According to IBM, during the testing period, "Millions of individual food products" were tracked by retailers and suppliers using the Food Trust blockchain.

Other notable blockchain initiatives happening within the food industry this year include the U.S. National Pork Board partnering with Ripe.io to test out a blockchain platform for pork supply chains.

China's food industry has now co-signed the technologyInterestingly, China's food and beverage industry - which posted a record high of 4.27 trillion yuan in revenue in 2018, and in so becoming the largest in the world - is also increasingly interested in blockchain.

In January, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party reported that the Food and Drug Administration of the Chinese Chongqing Yuzhong District is going to apply blockchain to strengthen the supervision of food and drug quality assurance with better traceability of the product life-cycle and anti-counterfeiting measures.

As the press release states, "With a potential link to blockchain, it [Laatu] is capable of providing an accurate and secure audit trail for food producers and all players in the supply-chain." Further, in June, a nonprofit blockchain organization Iota Foundation teamed up with digital food safety management firm Primority to track food allergens with blockchain.

"Wal-Mart's strategy with a single platform from IBM Food Trust is an example of both progress and a hurdle at the same time. I would have preferred to see Wal-Mart providing a Blockchain enabled, standards-based platform and then their hundreds of suppliers who will use dozens of Blockchain solutions being able to connect and share standards-based data seamlessly. Having a vendor lock-in is counterintuitive in the evolving Blockchain world."

Thus, as more retailers and suppliers are joining forces with blockchain companies, the idea of adopting the technology is perceived as more tenable within the food industry.

"We haven't ever met any food company which refused to use blockchain. Although solution providers have to put in a lot of education effort, food companies are open to the idea of using blockchain. Certainly the media hype around blockchain helps this effort, but 90% of the implementation challenges are not blockchain related ones."