Does Supply Chain Traceability Actually Work? CEO of StopFakeFood at GBF

Dubai Decentralized Futuretech 4.0, a blockchain related event organised by the Global Blockchain Foundation just culminated in Dubai today. A brilliant day full of bright new ideas and insightful panel discussions, is how the event can be described by attendees.

Representatives of BTC Wires were on ground to witness this exciting congregation of techies at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower in Dubai. Amidst the myriad interesting sessions that they attended, one was of Agustas Alesiunas’s, CEO of StopFakeFoods. Agustas made a presentation on “Does Supply Chain Traceability Actually Work?”

StopFakeFoods is a commendable initiative that aims to eliminate the problem of counterfeiting in food products. It combines Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology to improve tracking and monitoring of food supply. Their tagline is very catchy, it says ‘Enjoy food, not lies‘.

Blockchain technology has been a blessing for the logistics industry and for the purpose of quality control. China has especially taken notice of this technology and tried to incorporate it in their indstries. We had previously reported how the Chinese were experimenting with blockchain technology to ensure food and drug safety in the country.

On the occasion of Thanksgiving, you would be delighted to hear that Cargill, which is a Minnesota-based American food distributor, has made arrangements for you to track your Thanksgiving dinner Turkey with blockchain.

StopFakeFoods is doing some incredible work in this arena. They are “building the world’s largest food data market.” Their website claims

Our goal is to cover all the vast variety of food products available to mankind, as SFF own Blockchain Infrastructure is designed for a constant knowledge growth, driven by our neural network and the community input.

We reached out to Mr. Alesiunas for a comment on his experience of the event and his thoughts on food chain traceability, this is what he has to say:

To have such a diversified crowd in Dubai Futuretech Decentralised 4.0 made it a great experience. I was able to gather the inputs of institutional leaders, first line investors and industry veterans. There was just so much valuable knowledge being shared.

Food traceability is real need in today’s global market. Not only about the obvious perspective of consumers protection, but also business protection and, at an institutional level, national policies enforcement. As the media bombardes us every day with food industry scandals, we understand the scale and diversity of food crimes. They are everywhere and can happen at any point of the life line of a product. For that reason, being able to trace that life line is crucial for the protection of the industry and its consumers.
Blockchain is seen like the perfect tool for food traceability due to its specificities as a ledger. It is transparent, immutable and enables frictionless relations between multiple players in its ecosystem. So far so good. At every step of the production and supply chain of an item, each actor enters the part of its role in the ledger. He is also free to audit the previous steps of that item, trusting that they could not be tampered with. But when we say “each actor enters the part of its role in the ledger”,that means that we are dependent on the authenticity of that information, which sounds like the first weak spot.
But even if all actors are legit and doing their best work, how do we trace that item? Is it with a QR code? or a chip? Is it hidden, and if so, where and by whom?

It is exciting to see so many novel ideas and ventures come together under one roof and have an exchange of information and expertise. The event was a success in all terms.