How Blockchain is Changing The Way We Eat

Let’s understand the magic of blockchain in a different light today. Apart from the mind-boggling technical terms, let’s attempt to track the entire meal with the help of blockchain.

Undoubtedly, as the demand for having sustainable and healthy food is on the rise, introducing transparency in the entire meal has become important, particularly for high-end groceries and eateries outlets.

The whereabouts of the food served to you matters, and without a doubt, if you could get more details about your food like who grew the tomatoes, or the farm in which the potatoes used to make your French fries were grown, your food might taste even more delicious. You would then be aware if you were supporting local producers and if they’re organic.

However, apart from this, there are various other significant reasons as to why food tracking is a right step. Tracking food with the help of blockchain is expected to fight against food-borne illnesses. According to an estimate by Forbes, food-borne illnesses cost an estimated $90 billion in revenue losses to the businesses.

This pretty much explains why corporations like Dole and Walmart are working actively in blockchain to devise ways through which they can save money. On the same lines, various major IT tech giants like Intel and IBM are also working on their signature blockchain solution based supply chain networks.

Use Cases in Action

One of the notable examples of the usage of blockchain in making the food supply chain more transparent is that of Ogden Driskill who is a Republican state senator in Wyoming. More than 300 calves were tagged with RFID chips in May 2018 and were tracked by BeefChain, which is a Wyoming startup that uses blockchain to make supply chain transparent and accountable.

According to Senator Driskill, whose family runs Campstool Ranch for five generations now:

“By selling blockchain calves, my reputation rides all the way to your plate, and it leads to me being much more vigilant about how things go because my name rides with it.”

But it is not just limited to beef, as poultry is being tracked using blockchain too. Carrefour uses a shared distributed ledger to pack its products. Each product consists of a QR code which provides all the related information, including the time the egg was hatched and the conditions during the transport.

It is not just about the new names in the industry, but some of the largest food companies like Nestle and the like, are also using blockchain to improve their supply chains in an array of ways.

Encouraged by food recalls, which reduces consumers’ confidence, Nestle has been using blockchain to track baby food. The experiment is an extension of the Food Trust partnership. Also, Nestle is currently working on blockchain and plans to conduct more intensive research on how public blockchains like Ethereum could be leveraged.

Initiatives such as the one in Wyoming proves that blockchain is a tool to be trusted. Coupled with AI and IoT, it can provide detailed information from source to plate, enabling producers, transporters and sellers to ensure the quality of the merchandise, not only cutting costs but improving reputation and health.

As we’ve extensively covered at The Blockchain Land, the applications range from beef, poultry, salad, baby food, grains and oil. This is yet another success story, and we are delighted by the fact that blockchain is capable of making our food industry safer.