Crystal Clear: How Blockchain Will Help to Be Confident in Your Food
Even when you visit a well-known big supermarket, you can get out of there with bags full of expired or uneatable products. Dishonest retailers are frequent in the food industry, either among the intermediaries and supermarket staff. We will tell you how can it be and how the blockchain technology can help you to avoid being tricked.
The substitution of the expiry dates and the information about the origin is not caused by the food deficit, but the competition on the food market. A large amount of goods rests unsold, and most retailers will try to put the products on another’s shoulders to avoid expenditures. The most common practice is the substitution of the expiry dates. The products can be put with new stickers with new dates, repacked or even processed: for example, the meat can be minced, or vegetables can be frozen or cut for salad. The fact that these products are already inedible will be hidden from the customer. Such products can also include those ones that had been stored under wrong temperature or humidity.
Even the country of origin can be replaced. A certain store can replace the stickers or even the certificates in order to sell the food faster. It is not just a problem of certain stores, but also of large retailers. There is just not enough of certifying bodies to check everything. The store owners often know about forthcoming inspections, and will get ready for them the months before. The customer itself often risks buying expired food. And such things happen in a society with cutting-edge technologies!
Speaking about the technologies. There is something that can save the customers from deception and keep the vendors from modifying the information about the product. It is the blockchain technology, which implies storing the information in a distributed ledger which doesn’t allow to modify the entered information. It means that the expiry date and origin data of the product will just be impossible to be changed, because the vendors will just not be allowed to change it. You will know for sure, when and where a fruit which you have on your table have been grown. The same ledger will have the information about how these products have been grown, whether organically or not, which seeds and fertilizers have been used in the process, and all from the source, not from third parties, which are unsafe for the health to be trusted to.
FoodCoin Ecosystem considers developing a special product origin tracking system – PRORID.
It will consist in signing a smart contract by one or more experts (public, commercial or private) with an undisputed authority in matters of origin authentication of the goods that are the subject of an agreement under the current Smaco contract. If a smart contract includes a PRORID feature, the logistics company will be obliged to accept the goods only after confirmation from the experts on the current smart contract based on the consensus between the parties of the contract.
PRORID integration with the electronic databases of public fiscal, customs and supervisory authorities will significantly limit the circulation of illegal, counterfeit and other illicit trafficking products and goods, thus making a significant contribution to the fight against economic crimes.
