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Blocking 'fake,' unsafe foods with blockchain

From fake honeybee honey to food safety issues, QSRs need an ally in their fight against potentially brand-busting threats. Enter blockchain, a supply chain's best and certainly most honest friend.

July 31, 2019 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

Can your QSR be absolutely sure that so-called honey-based sauce is made with actual honey? Does your brand really have a clear, traceable path back to the source of that romaine lettuce you're using?

If you can't solidly answer those kinds of questions around so-called "counterfeit" or potentially tainted foods, you're taking a huge risk. Increasingly though, QSR brands like McDonald's and others are looking to blockchain technology for solid answers to these type of supply chain questions because it not only documents food's path from farm to plate more accurately, but also provides better traceback information when the seconds count after a food safety event first becomes known. 

Recently, sister site, Blockchain Tech News delved deeper into the potential for this tech as it relates to food safety in the restaurant industry in an interview with Oracle Blockchain Product Development Group Vice President Frank Xiong, beginning with Xiong's take on the food safety issues in need of answers today for limited-service brands, in particular. 

Q. What are the biggest issues with food safety today?

A.The market has been flooded with counterfeit food and drink products that have made people really sick. There's a real challenge in tracing and tracking unsafe and fake food in a fast and precise manner.

In recent years, there have been many cases of fake food products or food recalls from fake honey and fake wine, to metal pieces in hot dogs and the E. coli linked to lettuce. This is why food suppliers, retailers and restaurants need a quick and accurate way to verify food safety, food temperature (cold chain) and the entire food chain of custody.

Q. How can blockchain technology help to address these issues? 

A. Blockchain technology can be used in various ways to improve food safety and provide a single point of truth. It provides a trusted way for various stakeholders — some of which may not know each other — to track raw ingredients that are used in food products.

Blockchain technology enables retailers to quickly and easily pinpoint the source of food and any reported contamination — for example, a salmonella outbreak — or undertake root cause analysis. In addition, blockchain enables certification of foods and labeling of foods to provide market regulators and consumers with a new level of transparency and assurance in food quality and safety.

Q. Does this have any effect on restaurant customer service and/or experience?

A.Blockchain technology provides the transparency needed to ensure that trust between consumer and distributor/manufacturer is not broken. For example, some foods already have "verified by blockchain" labels — such as Avery Dennison's Appellation Earth wines from Napa Valley — to guarantee the origin and authenticity of wine.

Consumers want to be able to follow the journey of their food from farm to table, giving them the confidence that what they're consuming is authentic, organic or sustainably sourced. 

The World Bee Project, Hive Network, uses IoT technology to gather information about the weight of the hives before and after harvesting. This information is pulled into a blockchain, along with other identifiers, such as the temperature of the bees and the amount of honey produced.

Final note

That final example that Xioung used around hives and honey exemplifies the way that blockchain technology can share origination and production information all along the supply chain, he said. It's a traceable, authenticated process that help verify whether a product — in this case, honey — is, indeed, honey, or something else entirely. 

Photo: iStock
 

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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Oracle

Oracle helps ambitious food and beverage providers transact in new ways, prioritize guests, and deliver great experiences. With Simphony Cloud, an open and extensible digital transaction platform, NetSuite for business management, and CrowdTwist for loyalty, thousands of operators worldwide automate operations and elevate personalized guest experiences with Oracle.

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