Getting food from a farm to a consumer’s table involves multiple intermediaries: food suppliers, processors, brokers, retailers, logistics and regulators. Data sharing in this ecosystem is usually limited to groups that have direct contact and no one has a complete, end-to-end view of the supply chain. Although our current system works, information is often incomplete, comes from multiple sources and is in different formats.

When food makes it to the table, there is no way of verifying its origins or packaging claims. One also has to hope that the food

isn’t contaminated because food recalls often aren’t issued in a timely manner. And if there is a recall, one will probably end up throwing out unaffected foods along with contaminated ones. These issues have consumers asking for improved transparency in the food industry. They want to know where their food comes from, as well as how it is grown, harvested and transported.

When applied to the food supply chain, digital product information such as farm origination details, batch numbers, factory and processing data, expiration dates,

storage temperatures and shipping detail are digitally connected to food items and the information is entered into the blockchain along every step of the process.

Each piece of information provides critical data that could potentially reveal food safety issues with the product. The record created by the blockchain can also help organizations better manage the shelf-life of products in individual stores and further strengthen safeguards related to food authenticity.