Have you ever imagined how delicious food arrived on your dinner plate? Imagine if the food process starts from food ingredients to processing, how long the process would be. This is called the food supply chain where the food process begins. This is a long process where suppliers ensure food safety and food quality standards to reach consumers. This food supply chain process needs special supervision for several days. But Blockchain technology has improved the food supply chain for security, decentralization and also traceability that can be done in just a few seconds.
So, whats is Food Supply Chain Blockchain?
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The Food Supply Chain
The food supply chain is the stage that food products go through from where the food comes from until ready to eat. Food is distributed to service providers such as supermarkets who connect it to customers. Each step of the supply chain requires human and/or natural resources. This is what makes them interconnected and affects the food price.
There are several stages in the food supply chain:
- Production: where the food-ingredients come from. Food products are grown or developed following local and international guidelines.
- Processing and packaging: food is selected as food safety requirements before moving to the packaging stage. Packing will be done when the goods sorting process has been completed.
- Distributing: This is the last stage where the food process ends up in the market or supermarket and can be enjoyed by the customers.
Identify the problem
The key to fulfil customer satisfaction is to ensure the best food quality and competitive prices, so that supermarkets and suppliers can maintain profits along with customer satisfaction. Management oversees the movement of each supply chain such as the food delivery process so that the product remains in good condition when it reaches its destination. A well-managed food supply chain will prevent problems from arising and causing losses in the future such as non-standard food quality.
What can blockchain solve?
Blockchain Revolutionizes the Food Supply Chain and makes it easy to track the food chain supply process with a decentralized system. Blockchain creates a highly transparent environment so the need for trust is completely eliminated and no central authority is required to mediate between the parties. A secure blockchain feature, keeps transactions immutable or fake as every change can be tracked and recorded across the network who has access to the information.
Some industries have applied blockchain to their business and we can learn from that. In 2019, Nestle, a Swiss multinational company announced blockchain technology that has been applied to optimize the quality of its products. This is not the first time for Nestle, because in 2017 Nestle has also announced the use of blockchain in promoting Mousline products in Paris, where consumers have access to see the potato supply chain starting from the source of seeds, the planting process to the harvesting process, which is the main ingredient of the product. That is such an interesting experience, isn’t it?!
Not only Nestle, in 2018 the Sustainable Shrimp Partnership (SSP) which is a shrimp farming company in Ecuador, South America, provides the latest experience for its consumers through blockchain technology. Consumers only need to scan the QR code listed on the product packaging and then they will be connected to data containing the process of breeding to harvesting, the stage of its growth, and the journey of shrimp from ponds to suppliers.
Don't you see if the application of blockchain is not in doubt? Yep! Blockchain is considered the future of commerce that is integrated with technology. Not only presenting a unique opportunity for the food-chain industry but also customer experience, supply chain resources to finance can be solved with a peer-to-peer digital ledger from the blockchain.
Then how about the restaurant industry sector? How can restaurants leverage blockchain technology today?
Many restaurants have applied blockchain to optimize sales through customer experience while offering alternative payments using cryptocurrency. The evolving world of digital money and blockchain is something that will not only benefit the industry by saving high transaction fees from banks but also become a much more rewarding way for guests to pay. One of the Japanese restaurants in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong called Okra Kitchen, started accepting digital money instead of cash, even Okra Kitchen is looking for a service that can process crypto payments with Trust Wallet which is equivalent to Hong Kong dollars in Bitcoin, Ethereum Coin, Binance USD, and Ripple.
The implementation of blockchain technology is so fast. Collaboration with Red Ruby, StarWORKS Global is implementing blockchain technology into the hospitality sector, by launching the crypto reward program for every burger and cocktail purchase at Red Ruby. This innovation is needed to grow market share, calling for new strategies to deal with larger competitors. As well as a new strategy to introduce applicable blockchain and cryptocurrency technology into the culinary business.