Imagine this: a consumer scans a QR code on their poultry purchase in the grocery store and learns immediately where and how the animal was raised.
Blockchain is a form of digital technology that makes this kind of transparency and traceability possible.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain was originally developed for use in the finance industry. Each block of data stored in a blockchain is securely linked to the blocks surrounding it, ensuring that all the information is safe.
“I think the main thing to know about blockchain is that it's a distributed ledger. It’s kind of like a bank,” said Samantha Gadenne, an International Business Developer for Connecting Food, a French start-up that partners with clients in the global animal production food industry to help improve internal supply chain traceability and customer-facing transparency.
“A bank has one database where everyone's information is stored. The idea of blockchain is that that same database is multiplied across multiple sites, so that you can't hack just one of them and have the information be changed or stolen or falsified in any kind of way.”
Uses in the poultry industry
A growing number of consumers want to know more about how their food is produced. In a recent survey on the use of digital technology in food production from the Center for Food and Agriculture Business at Purdue University, 36% of respondents said transparency was “extremely important.”
In the poultry supply chain, blockchain could be used to create the history of a product as it goes from the grower to the grocer.
For example, producers could use blockchain to share that animals or eggs were raised in a cage-free, free-range or organic environment. The digital technology could even be used to share company-wide sustainability efforts with consumers.
Italy’s largest supermarket chain, Coop Italia, recently implemented blockchain technology to trace their organic eggs with the help of Connecting Food. By scanning a QR code on the egg carton, customers can read about the hen’s breed, the packing center and the farm where the egg was hatched.
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