Blockchain for Food Industry: Opportunities, Requirements, Case Studies, and Research Challenges

Efficient and reliable management of the business operations within the food supply chain is crucial to ensure the quality, safety, traceability, and security of food products. Streamlining different food supply chain management operations by utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as Cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained enough attention in recent years. Most of the systems developed for streamlining food supply chain management operations are centralized and offer limited traceability, reliability, transparency, immutability, provenance, and consumer trust in food products. Furthermore, such systems are prone to single-point failure, as well as data tampering and alteration. Blockchain is a decentralized technology that follows a distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture for storing and processing data. It offers several benefits to participants of the food supply chain in terms of improved data provenance, transparency, traceability, security, and immutability. This article discusses blockchain technology's potential role and opportunities in transforming food supply chain processes. It identifies and discusses key requirements of food supply chain participants that blockchain technology must meet to efficiently manage the business processes involved in the food supply chain. It explores case studies and research projects in the food sector that are based on blockchain technology, aiming to highlight the applicability of blockchain in the food supply chain. Finally, it identifies and discusses open research issues and challenges in the food industry.