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– Mobile tracking system, with communication structure to support diversified food production at any scale
Courtesy University of Tokyo: Experienced shoppers expect to learn more and more about the origin of the food they eat, whether at street markets or large retailers. A prototype application proposed by researchers at the University of Tokyo aims to combat food fraud and provide security and total transparency from the farm to the table along food supply chains meeting the needs of small farmers, boutique producers and industrial producers.
Official food certification systems exist in many countries, but experts say the financial cost of implementation and maintenance labor costs are impractical for small producers.
Existing certification systems can also be exploited by unscrupulous vendors who fake authenticity certificates or logos for premium products, like Japanese wagyu meat and Italian Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or for environmentally ethical products, like dolphin-safe tuna.
“Our motivation was to design a food tracking system that is cheap for small farmers, convenient for consumers and can prevent food fraud,” said Kaiyuan Lin, a third-year doctoral student at Tokyo University and the first author of the research study published in Nature Food.
The research team’s food tracking system begins with harvesting any ingredient, for example, rice from a family farm. The farmer opens the app on a cell phone, enters details about the quantity and type of rice, and then creates and prints a QR code to attach to the rice bags. A truck driver then scans the QR code and inserts details into the app about where, when and how the rice was transported to the market. A market vendor buys the rice, checks the QR code to record that the rice is in his possession, and enters details about where and how the rice is stored before resale.
Eventually, the seller may sell some rice directly to consumers or other manufacturers who can scan the QR code and find out where the rice originated.
“My mission is to make sure the system is not lying to you. The data is recorded in our digital system only when transactions happen from person to person in the real physical world, so there can be no food fraud, ”said Lin.
If an imposter registered fake QR codes to deceive consumers, farmers would find that the size of the alleged crop suddenly doubled in the app. Farmers can also choose to receive app updates on where, when and how their harvest eventually reaches consumers. “We believe that tracking your ingredients will appeal to farmers’ sense of skill and pride in their work,” said Lin.
The application can also transform a long list of ingredients into a single QR code. For example, a factory chef can buy rice from Taiwan, Kampot pepper from Cambodia and Kobe meat from Japan to make in prepared meal kits. Only when physically receiving these ingredients can the factory register its QR codes. After collecting all the ingredient codes, the factory uses the app to create a new QR code to attach to the complete meal kits.
The factory can create a unique QR code for each new batch of meal kits every day. When consumers scan a meal kit’s QR code, they can read details about the kit, as well as the entire origin of all individual ingredients that are digitally connected to the kit’s QR code.
“The current barcode system means that every day of the year, forever, when you buy the same product, it will have the same barcode.
Our system means that small producers who make small batches can generate a new QR code for each batch, ”said Lin. This increased level of detail can also help regulators track food safety and manage any safety recalls more efficiently and accurately. The application was designed with open source software and a fully decentralized database (point-to-point or multi-master), which means that changes are not controlled by a centralized server.
Data storage is distributed between each user’s phone or computer, so there is no central server to hack, giving consumers even more peace of mind. The researchers hope that the decentralized aspect of the application will further contribute to the democratization of food systems.
For instance, the application remains a hypothetical proposal that needs more financial support to become a reality.“We created a prototype for demonstrating the infrastructure for a new system of accurate food traceability. Before we can all use the app on our next grocery shopping trip, computer programmers and user interface designers will have to build the app and farmers will need printers for QR code stickers, ”said Lin.
This research is a collaborative project with the Institute of Complex Systems of Paris Île-de-France, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Food fraud
Authors: Kaiyuan Lin, David Chavalarias, Maziyar Panahi, Tsaiching Yeh, Kazuhiro Takimoto, Masaru Mizoguchi, “Mobile-based traceability system for sustainable food supply networks”, Nature Food: November 2, 2020, doi: 10.1038 / s43016-020 -00163-y.
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