Traceability, Transparency, and Horsemeat: How Blockchain will Revolutionize the Food Industry. Blog by Mattias Nordlander from Chef & Yöung
This month Mattias Nordlander from Chef & Yöung finds out how the restaurant industry can tackle traceability when it comes to food quality.
Customers demand more and more transparency from the products and services they consume every day. The increased demand for transparency and traceability can lead to real issues for any company who falls foul and is named and shamed in public.
We all remember the scandal where IKEA meatballs were found to contain horsemeat. Worse, IKEA did not themselves know enough about their supply chain to guarantee the quality or authenticity of the products it was selling.
A natural uproar ensued which affected other retailers such as Tesco as well.
If the requirement of being transparent and honest is becoming more important, how can the food industry and restaurants work to become more transparent in their operations, and hold their suppliers to a standard of quality and authenticity?
As with many issues today, a solution may lie in technology. Blockchain technology is on everybody’s mind currently and there are indications that it can be used for food safety and verification.
Companies such as IBM are already working on using blockchain to track food suppliers and verify food safety.
We could be close to a time where customers have an app on their Smartphone that scans a food label and tells him/her not only what the food is but where it was produced, by whom, and when it was harvested, grown, or processed. In fact, Walmart is already working on delivering this service to Chinese consumers for their food markets.
It is only a matter of time before customers are asking for the same ability in the restaurant industry.
What do you think? How can the restaurant industry tackle traceability already today? What effect would it have on the business? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Facebook page or Twitter to keep the conversation going.
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