Food Traceability is a crucial aspect of modern food systems, ensuring transparency, accountability, and safety from farm to fork. At its core, food traceability involves tracking the movement of food products and ingredients through all stages of harvest, production, processing, packaging, holding, and distribution. By implementing robust traceability systems, stakeholders in the food supply chain can quickly and accurately trace the source of a food product or ingredient in the event of a food safety issue, quality concern, or product recall.
The process of food traceability begins at the farm, port, or production facility, where each batch of food products or ingredients is assigned a unique identifier. This identifier is then used to track the movement of the batch as it moves through the supply chain. At each stage, relevant information about the batch, such as its location, temperature, and handling practices, is recorded and stored in a traceability system. This information is crucial for ensuring the integrity of the food product and identifying any potential issues that may arise. Today, we can find technologies that can be used to enhance traceability and ensure regulatory entities and consumers that the information used is the original.
Blockchain has become a tool to provide a secure, transparent, and immutable record of transactions and data exchanges across the supply chain. At Darwin Evolution , we are creating a software that will allow each participant in the supply chain, from farmers and producers to distributors and retailers, to record relevant information in a shared blockchain ledger. This information is encrypted and linked in chronological order, creating a permanent and unchangeable record. Later, regulators will be able to access the information through the system with a traceability product-code and consumers will have the chance to scan a QR code on the products’ labels that will allow them to verify the authenticity, quality, and sustainability of the food they are purchasing.
Implementing food traceability offers several key benefits for both businesses, regulatory entities, and consumers. For businesses, traceability helps improve supply chain efficiency, reduce the risk of product recalls, and enhance brand reputation. By being able to quickly trace the source of a food product or ingredient, companies and federal organizations can more effectively manage recalls and mitigate the impact on consumers and their business. For consumers, traceability provides peace of mind, knowing that the food they are consuming is safe, high-quality, and produced ethically and sustainably.