The blockchain, a weapon also in the service of food security

Thanks to Blockchain technology, in case of food poisoning, the wrong ingredient can be precisely identified and immediately removed from the shelves

The food industry hopes to find the grail to limit mass poisoning: blockchain, the technology used for the virtual currency Bitcoin, is also capable of tracking in real time and reliably the path of foodstuffs, from producer to consumer.
Associated with IBM, the American distribution giant Wal-Mart uses it to test the path of mangoes in the United States and that of pigs in China. Each of the actors in the supply chain is invited to enter in a digital register, accessible to all, its information from the date of semi to fertilizer to harvest and temperatures. The cattle industry takes the details of the animal (slaughter, approval number of the slaughterhouse and the cutting establishment.

Just take a photo of the documents with his smartphone and download it on a dedicated platform.
"It is not possible to subtract one product from another. If a supplier seizes a package of beef lasagna and you then discover that there is no beef, it is easy to know who sold you this in Real time, "says Frank Yiannas, food security officer at Wal-Mart.
"The registry is very secure because every time data is entered, it is automatically linked to the previous information, which is itself linked to the previous ones. There is no central authority," confirms William Fearnley , An expert at IDC.
Appearing in 2009, the blockchain is a computer protocol that resembles a gigantic public database, secure and shared. The coded and authenticated transaction blocks are added to each other in chronological order, forming a chain of blocks. Roughly speaking, it is a book of accounts held by all, which is unfalsifiable because to modify an information, it should be changed at the same time in everyone

• Transparency -
  Its advocates argue that it will limit millions of dollars in salmonella outbreaks and tarnish the reputation of brands, limit fraud and reduce waste.
  "In the event of food poisoning, the wrong ingredient can be precisely identified, immediately removed from the shelves and prevented from being exposed to a large number of people," Yiannas said. Two weeks to find the faulty commodity because most of the information is found on paper and often with inaccuracies.
  The other virtue of the blockchain, according to its supporters, is that it will push industries often in the sights of NGOs, such as fishing and gems, towards more ethical and responsible practices.
  "Our goal is to bring transparency to every stage of a diamond's journey," says Leanne Kemp, CEO of Ever Ledger, a young British shooter who has built a system to record the movements of diamonds, from mines to jewelers.
  The buyer of a diamond can see if it has been extracted in a zone at war, advances the leader, who wants to extend the technology to the whole of the luxury in order to reduce also the counterfeits.
  "This will help build customer confidence," says Stephen Lussier, marketing manager for diamond dealer De Beers.

• Tuna with flowers -
  The British start-up Provenance, which conducted a test a year ago to trace the production and distribution chain of tuna caught in Maluku, Indonesia, believes that, forced to share information in real time, the industrial fishing industry could Abandon cyanide trawl and cyanide fishing practices deemed harmful to the environment.
  To be effective, "all players in the production and distribution chain must agree to play the game," warns William Fearnley, however, while planning for large-scale deployment of technology from 2018 onwards.

Aware of the pitfall, the Danish group Maersk Line boasts the billions of dollars of savings that the blockchain will generate for the transport of goods in the hope of arousing the adhesion of the sector.
The company said it had noticed that the shipment of refrigerated products from East Africa to Europe required the green light of at least 30 people, with more than 200 interactions between services (customs, taxes, Health services ... etc).
However, an open digital register would save time, says Maersk, who has already carried out various tests, including one with a container of flowers from the port of Mombasa (Kenya) to that of Rotterdam (Netherlands).

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