Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Applying Blockchain Technology for Food Traceability

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Smart Agriculture Technologies

Abstract

Food traceability had been welcomed to address some concerns related to food scares or fears. Efficient food traceability helps government agencies and those who produce and sell food, in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak or contamination event, quickly find the source of the food contamination. However, traditional food traceability systems are facing problems such as many actors in the food production system (including farmers, food processing companies, and retailers) as well as a lack of technical infrastructures for synchronized food safety monitoring across the food system. Recent research provided ample evidence of the potential of emerging digital advancements such as blockchain technology to alleviate traditional food traceability shortcomings. Blockchain technology is an immutable digital data management system for storing and retrieving generated and linked data in a network (known as blocks). Blockchain with its immutable structure has gained momentum in different industries. There are four major areas in that blockchain could make the food supply chain more efficient. These areas include ensuring data accuracy, improving the efficiency of the food supply chain, enabling smart agriculture, and monitoring food safety. In this entry, the role of blockchain technology in all these areas will be discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ada N, Kazancoglu Y, Sezer MD, Ede-Senturk C, Ozer I, Ram M (2021) Analyzing barriers of circular food supply chains and proposing Industry 4.0 solutions. Sustainability 13:6812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antle JM (2001) Economic analysis of food safety. Handb Agric Econ 1:1083–1136

    Google Scholar 

  • Arunkumar N, Sivaprakasam P (2020) Blockchain technology in data management. In: 2020 Fourth International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC), 11–13 March 2020, pp 199–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Aschemann-Witzel J, Stangherlin IDC (2021) Upcycled by-product use in agri-food systems from a consumer perspective: a review of what we know, and what is missing. Technol Forecast Soc Change 168:120749

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Astill J, Dara RA, Campbell M, Farber JM, Fraser EDG, Sharif S, Yada RY (2019) Transparency in food supply chains: a review of enabling technology solutions. Trends Food Sci Technol 91:240–247

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Atkins P (2008) Fear of animal foods: a century of zoonotics. Appetite 51:18–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bettín-Díaz R, Rojas AE, Mejía-Moncayo C (2018) Methodological approach to the definition of a blockchain system for the food industry supply chain traceability. In: Gervasi O, Murgante B, Misra S, Stankova E, Torre CM, Rocha AMAC, Taniar D, Apduhan BO, Tarantino E, Ryu Y (eds) Computational science and its applications – ICCSA 2018. Springer, Cham, pp 19–33

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bhat SA, Huang N-F, Sofi IB, Sultan M (2022) Agriculture-food supply chain management based on Blockchain and IoT: a narrative on enterprise blockchain interoperability. Agriculture 12:40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosona T, Gebresenbet G (2013) Food traceability as an integral part of logistics management in food and agricultural supply chain. Food Control 33:32–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown ME (2015) Satellite remote sensing in agriculture and food security assessment. Procedia Environ Sci 29:307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canavari M, Centonze R, Hingley M, Spadoni R (2010) Traceability as part of competitive strategy in the fruit supply chain. Br Food J 112:171–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao S, Powell W, Foth M, Natanelov V, Miller T, Dulleck U (2021) Strengthening consumer trust in beef supply chain traceability with a blockchain-based human-machine reconcile mechanism. Comput Electron Agric 180:105886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caro MP, Ali MS, Vecchio M, Giaffreda R (2018) Blockchain-based traceability in agri-food supply chain management: a practical implementation. In: 2018 IoT vertical and topical summit on agriculture – Tuscany (IOT Tuscany), 8–9 May 2018, pp 1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Casino F, Kanakaris V, Dasaklis TK, Moschuris S, Stachtiaris S, Pagoni M, Rachaniotis NP (2020) Blockchain-based food supply chain traceability: a case study in the dairy sector. Int J Prod Res 59:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Cillo V, Petruzzelli AM, Ardito L, Del Giudice M (2019) Understanding sustainable innovation: a systematic literature review. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26:1012–1025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dabbene F, Gay P, Tortia C (2014) Traceability issues in food supply chain management: a review. Biosyst Eng 120:65–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobrovnik M, Herold DM, Fürst E, Kummer S (2018) Blockchain for and in logistics: what to adopt and where to start. Logistics 2:18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espiñeira M, Santaclara FJ (2016) Chapter 1. What is food traceability? In: Espiñeira M, Santaclara FJ (eds) Advances in food traceability techniques and technologies. Woodhead Publishing, Sawston

    Google Scholar 

  • Feng T (2017) A supply chain traceability system for food safety based on HACCP, blockchain & Internet of Things. In: 2017 International conference on service systems and service management, 16–18 June 2017, pp 1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Galvez JF, Mejuto JC, Simal-Gandara J (2018) Future challenges on the use of blockchain for food traceability analysis. TrAC Trends Anal Chem 107:222–232

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Garrard R, Fielke S (2020) Blockchain for trustworthy provenances: a case study in the Australian aquaculture industry. Technol Soc 62:101298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta S, Chen H, Hazen BT, Kaur S, Santibañez Gonzalez EDR (2019) Circular economy and big data analytics: a stakeholder perspective. Technol Forecast Soc Change 144:466–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal R, Butt TA (2020) Safe farming as a service of blockchain-based supply chain management for improved transparency. Clust Comput 23:2139–2150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joo J, Han Y (2021) An evidence of distributed trust in blockchain-based sustainable food supply chain. Sustainability 13:10980

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamble SS, Gunasekaran A, Sharma R (2020) Modeling the blockchain enabled traceability in agriculture supply chain. Int J Inf Manag 52:101967

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaske D, Mvena ZSK, Sife AS (2018) Mobile phone usage for accessing agricultural information in Southern Ethiopia. J Agric Food Inf 19:284–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labazova O, Dehling T, Sunyaev A (2019) From hype to reality: a taxonomy of blockchain applications. In: Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin YP, Petway JR, Anthony J, Mukhtar H, Liao SW, Chou CF, Ho YF (2017) Blockchain: the evolutionary next step for ICT e-agriculture. Environments 4:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin Q, Wang H, Pei X, Wang J (2019) Food safety traceability system based on blockchain and EPCIS. IEEE Access 7:20698–20707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longo F, Nicoletti L, Padovano A (2020) Estimating the impact of blockchain adoption in the food processing industry and supply chain. Int J Food Eng 16(5–6):20190109

    Google Scholar 

  • Maaß O, Grundmann P (2018) Governing transactions and interdependences between linked value chains in a circular economy: the case of wastewater reuse in Braunschweig (Germany). Sustainability 10:1125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mao D, Hao Z, Wang F, Li H (2018) Innovative blockchain-based approach for sustainable and credible environment in food trade: a case study in Shandong Province, China. Sustainability 10:3149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mao D, Wang F, Wang Y, Hao Z (2019) Visual and user-defined smart contract designing system based on automatic coding. IEEE Access 7:73131–73143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muheidat F, Patel D, Tammisetty S, Tawalbeh LAA, Tawalbeh M (2022) Emerging concepts using blockchain and big data. Procedia Comput Sci 198:15–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OCEANA (2018) Seafood fraud and mislabelling across Canada [online]. Oceana. Report, August 2018. Available: https://oceana.ca/en/publications/reports/seafood-fraud-and-mislabelling-across-canada. Accessed 18 May 2021

  • Pakseresht A, Yavari A, Kaliji SA, Hakelius K (2023) The intersection of blockchain technology and circular economy in the agri-food sector. Sustain Prod Consum 35:260–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park A, Li H (2021) The effect of blockchain technology on supply chain sustainability performances. Sustainability 13:1726

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • QLIKCHAIN (2019) Role of blockchain to prevent information asymmetry in food value chains [online]. Qlikchain. Available: https://www.qlikchain.com/qlikblogs/2019/10/24/role-of-blockchain-to-prevent-information-asymmetry-in-food-value-chains. Accessed 24 Oct 2019

  • Ronaghi MH (2021) A blockchain maturity model in agricultural supply chain. Inf Process Agric 8:398–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Salah K, Nizamuddin N, Jayaraman R, Omar M (2019) Blockchain-based soybean traceability in agricultural supply chain. IEEE Access 7:73295–73305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starbird SA, Amanor-Boadu V (2007) Contract selectivity, food safety, and traceability. J Agric Food Ind Organ 5:1141

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland BR (2019) Blockchain’s first consensus implementation is unsustainable. Joule 3:917–919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan A, Ngan PT (2020) A proposed framework model for dairy supply chain traceability. Sustain Futures 2:100034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tian F (2016) An agri-food supply chain traceability system for China based on RFID & blockchain technology. In: 13th International conference on service systems and service management, pp 1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Tian F (2017) A supply chain traceability system for food safety based on HACCP, blockchain & Internet of Things. In: 2017 International conference on service systems and service management, 16–18 June 2017, pp 1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • van Rijswijk W, Frewer LJ, Menozzi D, Faioli G (2008) Consumer perceptions of traceability: a cross-national comparison of the associated benefits. Food Qual Prefer 19:452–464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wassenaer L, Verdouw C, Wolfert S (2021) What blockchain are we talking about? An analytical framework for understanding blockchain applications in agriculture and food. Front Blockchain 4:653128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wamba SF, Queiroz MM (2020) Blockchain in the operations and supply chain management: benefits, challenges and future research opportunities. Int J Inf Manag 52:102064

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Chen K, Hao M, Yang B (2020) Food safety traceability method based on blockchain technology. J Phys Conf Ser 1634(2020):012025

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiong H, Dalhaus T, Wang P, Huang J (2020) Blockchain technology for agriculture: applications and rationale. Front Blockchain 3:7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2020.00007

  • Xu J, Guo S, Xie D, Yan Y (2020) Blockchain: a new safeguard for agri-foods. Artif Intell Agric 4:153–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang X, Li M, Yu H, Wang M, Xu D, Sun C (2021) A trusted blockchain-based traceability system for fruit and vegetable agricultural products. IEEE Access 9:36282–36293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yousefi MR, Razdari AM (2015) Application of GIS and GPS in precision agriculture (a review). Int J Adv Biol Biomed Res 3:7–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Sun P, Xu J, Wang X, Yu J, Zhao Z, Dong Y (2020) Blockchain-based safety management system for the grain supply chain. IEEE Access 8:36398–36410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Liu Y, Jiong Z, Zhang X, Li B, Chen E (2021) Development and assessment of blockchain-IoT-based traceability system for frozen aquatic product. J Food Process Eng 44:e13669

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Sina Ahmadi Kaliji

  2. Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, London, UK

    Ashkan Pakseresht

Authors
  1. Sina Ahmadi Kaliji
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ashkan Pakseresht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sina Ahmadi Kaliji .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Prosser, WA, USA

    Qin Zhang

Section Editor information

  1. Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systetms, Washington State University, Washington, USA

    Manoj Karkee

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Ahmadi Kaliji, S., Pakseresht, A. (2023). Applying Blockchain Technology for Food Traceability. In: Zhang, Q. (eds) Encyclopedia of Smart Agriculture Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_280-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89123-7_280-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89123-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-89123-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation