Food wastage is a growing concern across the world. According to the Food Waste Index Report (2024), the world wasted an estimated 1.05 billion tonnes of food in the retail, food service, and household sectors combined in the year 2022. The improper management and disposal of food waste may lead to contaminated products during the process of the food supply chain causing foodborne diseases. Both food wastage and foodborne diseases are urgent challenges that demand innovative and sustainable solutions. The current systems for managing food production, distribution, and consumption are often outdated or inefficient, leading to significant losses and risks. These issues cannot be addressed by isolated, traditional approaches alone; hence they require coordinated, multifaceted strategies that must involve technological, regulatory, and behavioural changes at local, national, and global levels. Existing literature indicates that blockchain offers a revolutionary solution to this problem by providing a secure and digital ledger accessible to each level of the food supply chain system.

Blockchain Technology and its Significance in Food Traceability

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto1 published a brief wherein a way to overcome the double-spend scenario, a problem that plagued previous cryptocurrencies was outlined. Despite not mentioning blockchain explicitly, he described its structure as a chain of hashed timestamps: “Each timestamp includes the previous timestamp in its hash, forming a chain, with each additional timestamp reinforcing the ones behind it”. Although this approach was later refined for Bitcoin, the concept was laid out: a chain of blocks, each cryptographically linked to the previous, using a hash digest. Reportedly, it is a distributed database that has various block-like structures that are connected as a decentralized system among individual users within a network. There are three main types of blockchain technology:

  1. Permissionless: It is an open source and has no barriers to who can use it.
  2. Permissioned: They are “private blockchain” and have a closed ecosystem in which individuals need permission to access.
  3. Blockchain Consortium or Federation: It is managed only by a group of people or trusted authorities.
  4. Hybrid Blockchain: It is a combination of permissionless and permissioned blockchain wherein users can control who gets access to which data stored in the blockchain. Only a selected section of data or records from the blockchain can be allowed to go public, keeping the rest as confidential in the private network.

Being proficient in data security and data management, blockchain-based systems can be used for food safety monitoring, governance, and agro-processes which can be a major step in revolutionizing our food system. BCT enhances the food chain by improving food safety and quality through its transparent and secure platform, reducing food wastage, fraud, and inefficiencies. It strengthens performance by delivering real- time data tracking for better supply-demand matching. The real-time availability of data also improves the efficiency of the food supply chains. It also reduces the cost of logistics and facilitates trust and collaboration among the users in the system. Moreover, it can improve the agro-supply chain by long-term monitoring of food security.

BCT has been incorporated into the implementation of certain government initiatives such as Public Distribution System (PDS).

A few companies have taken a step forward in revolutionizing food security. For instance, International Business Machines Corporation’s (IBM) “Food Trust” system is among the most advanced blockchain-based food monitoring systems. It allows different companies across the world including Nestle and Unilever to efficiently trace their product, ensuring transparency and building trust.

Key Drivers for BCT Adoption

BCT in the food supply chain (FSC) is facilitated by various enablers including traceability, transparency, immutability, and decentralization. Traceability is a key factor that ensures real-time tracking of the entire food supply chain using Internet of Things (IoT) devices like QR codes, wireless sensor networks (WSN), and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It provides transparency by protecting and maintaining the quality and safety of the food. Decentralized database spreads data in different nodes in the network reducing the risk of data manipulation and enabling trust among the participants. BCT also ensures immutability, creating an audit trail and reducing fraud.

Barriers

Regardless of how blockchain technology benefits food supply chains, it has a few limitations that need to be resolved, such as:

  • Scalability: The limited block size and continuous increase in the number of users, increase the demand for more nodes which can lead to slower transactions.
  • Lack of Expertise: Many stakeholders lack the knowledge and expertise of technical skills, making the implementation of BCT complicated and resource-intensive.
  • High cost: Small and medium-sized businesses cannot afford the high production and maintenance cost of BCT.
  • Regulations: Unclear rules and regulatory disputes hinder the widespread implementation of BCT.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology is revolutionizing food systems by strengthening transparency, traceability, and efficiency in the supply chains. Although blockchain technology is in its initial stages, it has the potential to ensure food security and meet consumer demand without compromising transparency. There’s an urgent need for scalable adoption, integration with IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, and interdisciplinary collaboration among various stakeholders across different production levels to increase traceability and transparency.

Future Directions

One of the important steps in implementing BCT in the food supply chain is to train the stakeholders with the required technical skills for its application. Future blockchain research for sustainable food security should focus on scalable blockchain solutions in various agricultural settings and among different manufacturing firms. Integration of IoT, AI and big data analytics can enhance the food supply chain management. In addition to this, to attain sustainability goals, it is necessary for the stakeholders to track the blockchain’s energy consumption and environmental impact.

References

  1. Food Waste Index Report 2024 UNEP – UN Environment Programme. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2025, from https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/food-waste- index-report-2024.
  2. Conceptualizing Blockchains: Characteristics & Applications. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2025, from https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.03693.
  3. Types of BlockChain. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2025, from https://blockchain.gov.in/Home/BlockChain?blockchain=type.
  4. Mohammed, A., Vidyasagar Potdar, Quaddus, M., & Hui, W. (2023). Blockchain Adoption in Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review on Enablers, Benefits, and Barriers. IEEE Access, 11, 14236–14255. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2023.3236666
  5. Nofima. (2019, February 5). Applications, limitations, costs, and benefits related to the use of blockchain technology in the food industry. Nofima. https://nofima.com/publication/1673512/ (Nofima, 2019)
  6. Arora, S., Oberoi, S., Nabi, T., & Verma, B. (2024). How does blockchain impact sustainable food security? Insights from literature review. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 4(2), 100276–100276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2024.100276 (Arora et al., 2024)
  7. Arif Furkan Mendi. (2022). Blockchain for Food Tracking. Electronics, 11(16), 2491–2491. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11162491
  8. Tang, A., Tchao, E. T., Agbemenu, A. S., Eliel Keelson, Griffith Selorm Klogo, & Kponyo, J. J. (2024). Assessing blockchain and IoT technologies for agricultural food supply chains in Africa: A feasibility analysis. Heliyon, 10(15), e34584–e34584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e3458