Blockchain in food safety management

Project team: Richard Leathers
Member Funded Research project
Running: January 2019 - December 2019
Project number: 147093
Proposal documentation

Blockchain is a continuously growing list of records that, by design, is inherently resistant to data modification. Better understanding of blockchain and other emerging approaches is required to determine if/how they are applicable to food safety management.

Investigating different tools, including blockchain, to decide if they are applicable to food safety management and how they can be used. This will be done through interviews and discussions with industry colleagues, by participating in the Global Food Blockchain Initiative a nd through partnering with selected companies to test and challenge potential systems.

The project has reviewed the use of blockchain and emerging approaches for food safety management, and a white paper has been published. We also looked at approaches that have been used by other industries. One approach, BowTie has been developed within the chemical/process industries that allows the visualisation of risks associated with a manufacturing operation to be communicated in a simple diagram that resembles a Bow Tie and is a combination of a fault tree and an event tree analysis. We believe this approach offers great potential for Campden BRI’s members, and are establishing a service to support members in its use.