FoodSQRBlock: Digitizing Food Production and the Supply Chain with Blockchain and QR Code in the Cloud

Applications of Big Data and Blockchain Technology in Food Testing and Their Exploration on Educational Reform

This study reviews the applications of big data (BD) and blockchain technology in modern food testing and explores their impact on educational reform. The first part highlights the critical role of BD in ensuring food safety across the supply chain, discussing various data collection methods, such as national and international food safety databases, while addressing the challenges related to data storage and real-time information retrieval. Additionally, blockchain technology has been explored for its ability to enhance transparency, traceability, and security in the food-testing process by creating immutable records of testing data, ensuring data integrity, and reducing the risk of tampering or fraud. The second part focuses on the influence of BD and blockchain on educational reform, particularly within food science curricula. BD enables data-driven curriculum design, supporting personalized learning and more effective educational outcomes, while blockchain ensures transparency in course management and credentials. This study advocates integrating these technologies into curriculum reform to enhance both the efficiency and quality of education.

A processing-type active real-time traceable certification system

In addition to substituting low-price and low-quality materials for high-quality materials at the food processing stage, many dishonest businesses risk adulterating chemical materials in products to reduce production costs or increase product flavor with chemical synthesis spices. As a result, the risks to food safety are increased. Most safety management and certification regulations proceed with on-site examination or sampling inspection. As current certification systems lack complete tracking and real-time certification processes, they cannot comprehensively check foods' processing and production processes and contents. Hence, food safety problems sway consumers' trust and confidence in certification systems. This study intends to improve the agricultural processing end's current food traceability certification system. Adding the design of raw material total quantity control provides a complete and sound real-time certification mechanism for citizens and businesses to assure consumer rights.

"Blockchain technology in food safety and traceability concern to livestock products"

Livestock products share more than fifteen percent of total agri-foods traded worldwide. A global increase in food demand has increased the risk to food safety. Improvements in food quality, cold chain transit, and preservation are required for safe livestock products. Though, the food safety and regulation authorities demand complete food traceability from farm to fork, but in traditional supply chain it is ignored by fiddling with the transit paperwork and bill invoices. The process of supply chain reformation and activities linked to food recalls during food safety issues are insanely expensive and challenging. Traceability-driven food supply chain management is likely to implement novel technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). The capability of the Blockchain era within the food sector is emerging with use cases across different regions, as shown via the growing number of studies. Credibility, efficiency, and safety are all improved when food products can be instantly traced from their point of origin through all points of contact on their way to the consumer. Blockchain assures a tamper-proof and transparent system that allows an innovative business solution, together with smart contracts. However, there are significant difficulties with the implementation of blockchain technology for food traceability. It necessitates more and more training platforms as well as trainers, who can make understanding and operability of this technology easy among ground-level participants and food entities. For the tactical application of this technology, it is essential to comprehend the legal and regulatory framework.

Blockchain-Based Supply Chain System for Olive Fields Using WSNs

The agricultural domain in developing countries is mostly dictated by archaic rules based on traditions and inherited practices. With the evolution of digitalization and technology, it seems essential to apply new technologies to the agricultural field. Among the technologies to be exploited in agriculture, we mention sensors, IoT, WSN, cloud, blockchain, etc. We talk about smart agriculture in this case. In this paper, we propose a platform secured by blockchain for monitoring and securing production. This platform uses IoT connected sensors to track and save data. Our system is used to monitor the production process of olive trees. The goal is to track everything that enters and leaves our olive tree production from fertilizers, insecticides, and fortifiers to olives, trimming etc. The blockchain via its decentralized system allow a secure, irreversible, and clear monitoring. A dashboard allow us to highlight the changes while facilitating the work of farmers. Our prototype will be embedded via a Raspberry Pi 4 platform.

Consumers' food control risk attitude for blockchain traceable information seeking: Evidence from fresh fruit buyers in China

The blockchain-based traceability in agri-food marketing has brought a disruptive paradigm shift by removing the inherent information asymmetry problem. Likewise, revealing sufficient product quality and attributes information could break agricultural markets' “Lemon Market” dilemma. This study takes the fresh fruit with blockchain traceability QR label as a case and systematically investigates the influence of consumers' food control risk attitude on information-seeking intentions. We utilized online survey data of 1,058 fresh fruit buyers and simultaneously applied ordinary least square (OLS), ordered logit model (Ologit), and propensity score matching (PSM) approaches to overcome the potential self-selection biases and confounding factors. The results show that risk attitude significantly negatively impacts consumers' information seeking fresh fruits. The stronger consumers' risk preference, the lower the probability of information seeking. Furthermore, we used PSM to overcome potential sample selectivity bias; therefore, PSM reinforces the significance of OLS and Ologit results. The sub-sample estimation results show that young individuals with high school and below education have stronger blockchain information-seeking intentions. The study provides new insights into the role of food control risk attitude and agri-food information traceability and offers several measures for policy and practice to realize a border trajectory in agri-food information disclosure.

Blockchain Technology in Operations & Supply Chain Management: A Content Analysis

Scholars are increasingly examining how the distributed blockchain technology can counter specific supply chain and operations management challenges. Various research approaches emerge from different scholarly backgrounds, but the interrelation of research areas and current trends has not been adequately considered in a systematic review. We employ a data-driven content analysis approach to examine previous research on blockchain technology in operations management and supply chain management. We investigate the extent to which blockchain technology was considered in scholarly works, structure the research efforts, and identify trends, interrelated themes, and promising research opportunities. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis is conducted on an extensive literature sample of 410 articles. Results indicate an optimistic attitude due to potentials such as tracking and tracing abilities, efficiency increases, and trust-building. Conceptual studies dominate the literature set, with increasing qualitative research efforts. Grand theories are seldomly addressed in the studies. Blockchain technology is outlined as particularly useful when combined with other technologies like IoT. We also identified sustainability implications of the technology, such as enabling transparency for SC stakeholders. Cryptocurrencies can facilitate further efficiency gains if legal uncertainties are reduced. The study is concluded with managerial and theoretical implications and future research opportunities.

Improving Agricultural Product Traceability Using Blockchain

Most traditional agricultural traceability systems are centralized, which could result in the low reliability of traceability results, enterprise privacy data leakage vulnerabilities, and the generation of information islands. To solve the above problems, we propose a trusted agricultural product traceability system based on the Ethereum blockchain in this paper. We designed a dual storage model of "Blockchain+IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)" to reduce the storage pressure of the blockchain and realize efficient information queries. Additionally, we propose a data privacy protection solution based on some cryptographic primitives and the Merkle Tree that can avoid enterprise privacy and sensitive data leakage. Furthermore, we implemented the proposed system using the Ethereum blockchain platform and provided the cost, performance, and security analysis, as well as compared it with the existing solutions. The results showed that the proposed system is both efficient and feasible and can meet the practical application requirements.

Enhancing Food Supply Chain Security through the Use of Blockchain and TinyML

Food safety is a fundamental right in modern societies. One of the most pressing problems nowadays is the provenance of food and food-related products that citizens consume, mainly due to several food scares and the globalization of food markets, which has resulted in food supply chains that extend beyond nations or even continent boundaries. Food supply networks are characterized by high complexity and a lack of openness. There is a critical requirement for applying novel techniques to verify and authenticate the origin, quality parameters, and transfer/storage details associated with food. This study portrays an end-to-end approach to enhance the security of the food supply chain and thus increase the trustfulness of the food industry. The system aims at increasing the transparency of food supply chain monitoring systems through securing all components that those consist of. A universal information monitoring scheme based on blockchain technology ensures the integrity of collected data, a self-sovereign identity approach for all supply chain actors ensures the minimization of single points of failure, and finally, a security mechanism, that is based on the use of TinyML’s nascent technology, is embedded in monitoring devices to mitigate a significant portion of malicious behavior from actors in the supply chain.

Evaluating the Use of QR Codes on Food Products

Today, consumers consider food packaging to be as equally important as a product brand. In addition, the increase in smartphone usage by consumers has led marketers to design new forms of packaging. Among the latest marketing trends, smart packaging with the use of QR Codes is emerging as one of the most promising technologies to enhance the information provided to consumers and influence their buying behavior. This study evaluates the use of a QR Code on bottled milk and more specifically on milk produced by one of the most well-known “boutique” Greek dairy producers. It consists of two phases. In the first one, data was gathered from 537 consumers of the product to capture and analyze their (i) buying behavior, (ii) perception of the product’s package, and (iii) knowledge about the product. In the second phase, a Quick Response (QR) Code was placed on the bottle’s label. Consumers who scanned it were linked to a web page containing information on the product. A total of 308 from the 537 initial respondents scanned the code, accessed the site, and answered the second questionnaire. Similar to the first stage, (i) the consumers’ buying behavior, (ii) their perception of the product’s package, and (iii) their knowledge about the product were examined, following their visit to the above-mentioned website through the QR Code. The objective was to evaluate the use of web applications using enriched text information. The results show that a QR Code on the packaging of food products, which directs consumers to entertaining and enriched content, results in an increased level of usage intention. Moreover, they proved that comprehension and self-confidence are higher with the adoption of the QR Code. In addition, the use of QR Codes enables businesses to provide timely and accurate information and positively influence consumers′ buying behavior.

Design of a Blockchain-Enabled Traceability System Framework for Food Supply Chains

Tracing food products along the entire supply chain is important for achieving better management of food products. Traditionally, centralized traceability systems have been developed for such purposes. One major drawback of this approach is that different users of the supply chain have their own systems with their own complexities and distinct features; thus, the interaction among them creates challenges when implementing a single centralized system. Therefore, a decentralized traceability system is favorable for tracing food products along the supply chain. In this study, we develop a supply chain traceability system framework based on blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The system consists of a decentralized blockchain-enabled data storage platform for data management and an RFID system at the packaging level for data collection and storage. We applied a consortium blockchain to the application. Fabric 2.0 in Hyperledger was chosen as the development platform. The proposed blockchain-enabled platform can provide decentralized data management and its underlying algorithm can guarantee data security. The system includes a creatively designed blockchain-enabled data structure in the RFID tag. When people scan the tag, the relevant information is written in the tag as a block linked to the previous blocks; simultaneously, the information is transmitted to the blockchain platform and recorded on the platform. No battery is required and the system works when there is an RFID reader nearby. The usage conditions included shipment, stocking, and storage. The RFID tag can be directly attached to paper packaging. This approach embeds the blockchain technique into the RFID tag and develops a corresponding system. The new traceability system has the potential to simplify the tracking of products and can be scaled for industrial use.

A Systematic Literature Review of Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chain Traceability Implementations

In recent years, traceability systems have been developed as practical tools for improving supply chain (SC) transparency and visibility, especially in health and safety-sensitive sectors like food and pharmaceuticals. Blockchain-related SC traceability research has received significant attention during the last several years, and arguably blockchain is currently the most promising technology for providing traceability-related services in SC networks. This paper provides a systematic literature review of the various technical implementation aspects of blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems. We apply different drivers for classifying the selected literature, such as (a) the various domains of the available blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems and relevant methodologies applied; (b) the implementation maturity of these traceability systems along with technical implementation details; and (c) the sustainability perspective (economic, environmental, social) prevalent to these implementations. We provide key takeaways regarding the open issues and challenges of current blockchain traceability implementations and fruitful future research areas. Despite the significant volume and plethora of blockchain-enabled SC traceability systems, academia has so far focused on unstructured experimentation of blockchain-associated SC traceability solutions, and there is a clear need for developing and testing real-life traceability solutions, especially taking into account feasibility and cost-related SC aspects.

SmartNoshWaste: Using Blockchain, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and QR Code to Reduce Food Waste in Decentralized Web 3.0 Enabled Smart Cities

Food waste is an important social and environmental issue that the current society faces, where one third of the total food produced is wasted or lost every year while more than 820 million people around the world do not have access to adequate food. However, as we move towards a decentralized Web 3.0 enabled smart city, we can utilize cutting edge technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and many more to reduce food waste in different phases of the supply chain. In this paper, we propose SmartNoshWaste—a blockchain based multi-layered framework utilizing cloud computing, QR code and reinforcement learning to reduce food waste. We also evaluate SmartNoshWaste on real world food data collected from the nosh app to show the efficacy of the proposed framework and we are able to reduce food waste by 9.46% in comparison to the originally collected food data based on the experimental evaluation.

Blockchain-Based IoT Devices in Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Through recent progress, the forms of modern supply chains have evolved into complex networks. The supply chain management systems face a variety of challenges. These include lack of visibility of the upstream party (Provider) to the downstream party (Client); lack of flexibility in the face of sudden variations in demand and control of operating costs; lack of reliance on safety stakeholders; ineffective management of supply chain risks. Blockchain (BC) is used in the supply chain to overcome the growing demands for items. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a profoundly encouraging innovation that can help companies observe, track, and monitor products, activities, and processes within their respective value chain networks. Research establishments and logical gatherings are ceaselessly attempting to answer IoT gadgets in supply chain management. This paper presents orderly writing on and reviewing of Blockchain-based IoT advances and their current usage. We discuss the smart devices used in this system and which device is the most appropriate in the supply chain. This paper also looks at future examination themes in blockchain-based IoT, referred to as the executive’s framework production network. The essential deliberate writing audit has been consolidated by surveying research articles circulated in highly reputable publications between 2016 and 2021. Lastly, current issues and challenges are present to provide researchers with promising future directions in IoT supply chain management systems.

A review of the technology and application of deposit and traceability based on blockchain

With the vigorous development of blockchain technology represented by bitcoin, blockchain technology has gradually entered the stage of blockchain 3.0 characterized by “programmable society”. And the application of blockchain technology in all walks of life has achieved actual results. Blockchain technology has typical characteristics of decentralization, Tamper-resistant data, information openness and transparency, and natural fit with the application requirements in the field of certificate tracing, which makes the development of the applications of blockchain deposit and traceability in full swing. First, this paper describes the concept, application process, key technology of blockchain deposit and traceability, the three application architectures of blockchain deposit and traceability, and the overall architecture of its system. Then, it introduces the application of scenarios and the blockchain deposit and traceability in various fields. Next, it discusses the issues existing in the development of the application of blockchain deposit and traceability. Finally, the paper also expresses the best wishes for the future of its application.

Digitalization and Future Agro-Food Supply Chain Management: A Literature-Based Implications

Achieving transition towards sustainable and resilient food systems is a critical issue on the current societal agenda. This study examined the potential contribution of digitalization of the food system to such transition by reviewing 76 relevant journal articles, indexed on the Scopus database, using the integrative literature review approach and descriptive content analysis with MAXQDA 2020 software. ‘Blockchain’ was the top hit among keywords and main concepts applied to the food system. The UK as a country and Europe as a continent were found to lead the scientific research on food system digitalization. Use of digital technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, big-data analytics, artificial intelligence, and related information and communications technologies were identified as enablers. Traceability, sustainability, resilience to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and reducing food waste were among the key benefit areas associated with digitalization for different food commodities. Challenges to practical applications related to infrastructure and cost, knowledge and skill, law and regulations, the nature of the technologies, and the nature of the food system were identified. Developing policies and regulations, supporting infrastructure development, and educating and training people could facilitate fuller digitalization of the food system.

Measuring the Effect of Blockchain Extrinsic Cues on Consumers' Perceived Flavor and Healthiness: A Cross-Country Analysis

Many studies in the related literature have proven that the perception of flavor and healthiness can be affected by both the product’s intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Package designs, brands, colors, labels and other visual elements exert and influence consumers’ expectations and guide them toward food decisions. With the increasing initiatives promoted within Europe in support of the adoption of blockchain technology in supply chains and agri-food contexts, in the coming years, packages will be used with additional product information certified with the technology itself. Cueing packages with blockchain-certified information could affect consumers in their overall flavor and health perceptions, similarly to that previously demonstrated with other extrinsic cues. In the present study, we analyzed a sample of 310 primary grocery shoppers from Germany, Italy and the UK, demonstrating the effectiveness of technology-certified information on the package of animal milk in influencing consumers’ flavor and health perceptions and exploring the differences and similarities across the three countries and milk categories.