COVID-19 made transparent supply chains more important

In times of uncertainty, like the COVID-19 global pandemic, consumers want reassurance that the food they buy is safe. New technologies, like blockchain, help make supply chains more transparent.

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Leowolfert | Dreamstime.com
Leowolfert | Dreamstime.com

In times of uncertainty, like the COVID-19 global pandemic, consumers want reassurance that the food they buy is safe. New technologies, like blockchain, help make supply chains more transparent.

“Consumers are asking more questions about their food. Where is it from? How was it raised? Do I have to feel guilty about it? That’s why we are seeing a need for food supply chains that are more transparent and more traceable,” said David Hughes, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London, and Visiting Professor at the Royal Agricultural University.

Hughes shared his thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on global poultry and egg purchases on May 28 during a webinar sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim.

Benefits of blockchain

The simplest way to explain blockchain is to think of a series of linked data that is securely linked to one another. Originally developed for the finance industry, its purpose is to serve as an open distributed ledger that records transactions between multiple parties. Once data has been saved to the blockchain, it cannot be altered without changing all the other records within the set.

Within the poultry industry, the record keeping capability of blockchain enables the easy tracking of where food originates, where it is shipped, processed and ultimately sold. In other words, blockchain saves the information on a poultry product from farm to fork.

This information can be shared with consumers via a QR code on poultry purchases, giving them the information they need about how and where their food is produced and making the supply chain transparent.

Blockchain is already used in other sectors of food production, including coffee.

“Technology is coming – not to our rescue – but allowing us to be more specific about how food is produced.” Hughes said. “What I’ve learned from COVID-19 is that those who respond quickly in their own way that can start to see some positives.”

View our continuing coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

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