Blockchain inching its way to the industry

Blockchain is expected to bring its benefits to the food and agriculture supply chain soon as more companies start to explore the possibilities and enter into new ventures.

Blockchain as explained by Rabobank, stores and verifies transactions between users. Transactions, or blocks, are recorded on a shared ledger. Individual entities, such as growers or processers own their own copy of the ledger, which is connected to thousands of other ledgers across the network. When a transaction is made, a new record (or block) is created and verified by the network and added to the blockchain. This enables secure and near-instant interactions between businesses. Each block is an encrypted and non-replicable digital record—it cannot be deleted, reversed, or edited—only a new entry that is validated by the entities in the chain can alter the blockchain.

What does this all mean to the food and beverage industry? Today when food safety is always at risk, consumers require transparency. According to experts, blockchain is ideal for traceability in the value chain since this platform enables easy processing of product data, everything that consumers need, including product origin of ingredients, quality, manufacturing practices, etc.  Having all the data including where all ingredients are coming from, where production took place, etc,  blockchain will help in differentiating counterfeit or contaminated products from the real ones.

Rabobak says this digital platform allows the maintenance of a permission less distributed databases which consists of a growing list of data records that preserves the integrity, singularity and validity of the stored information, without involving any trusted third party for verification purposes. It has potential to protect the identities of the user and makes blockchain a more secure way to carry out transactions.

In Italy, Romana Food Brands Corp. which is into food processing, is changing its name to Romana Food Blockchain Corp. in line with its core corporate focus on the development of blockchain food traceability and control application.

“The popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum, is not surprising due to the great underlying blockchain technology which enables the coins.” said Mr. Morrie Fogelbaum, Chairman of Romana Food Brands Corp.  “Using the same blockchain protocols, and designing a new approach to traceability, Romana will be able to capture a significant portion of the growing $16 billion market" further added Mr. Fogelbaum.

In the news, DNV GL, a global quality assurance and risk management company, partnered with blockchain Expert VeChain to boost the transparency of product and supplier information, and increase the efficiency of supply chains. The alliance is part of DNV GL’s Digital Assurance Concept, which uses blockchain technology as a foundational technology to ensure trust, security and accountability in global commerce.

VeChain, a pioneer in the blockchain industry, controls the leading public blockchain platform for products and information.

They are targeting various industries and will start implementing solutions in the food & beverage first.

By combining key blockchain features with embedded sensors and other "Internet of Things" technologies, it is possible to obtain unique insights into a product's history, status and performance. For example, how it has been produced, transported, stored and its current quality. This transparency and insight along the entire supply chain will give companies increased control and improve overall efficiency.

Consumers, on their part, can verify that the product they are considering purchasing is safe and genuine. As an example, the consumer can directly check that a product was ethically sourced from a manufacturer, that frozen food was safely transported at the right temperature or that a luxury product is an original, and can even track a wine back to the grape.

“Data is becoming an increasingly valuable asset and this partnership with VeChain will enable our digital solutions to address changing needs in the data-driven economy,” said Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL – Business Assurance. "By leveraging the Internet of Things and blockchain technology, we are reinventing the assurance process. Our Digital Assurance Concept will provide both companies and consumers with an unprecedented degree of insight into product and supplier information, to an extent and with an accuracy which have not been possible before.”

But a final word from Rabobank on how blockchain can be effective. According to Harry Smit, Senior Analyst – Farming and Farm Inputs: “First, processes within companies, and between companies, have to become digitalised and standardised. Second, a broad participation of stakeholders along the value chain is required; otherwise the value of blockchain is lost.” These prerequisites are vital for success.