Using Blockchain for Agro-Food Traceability: A Case Study from Olive Oil Industry

Abstract

Ensuring the safety and high quality of food is becoming increasingly important. Traceability of food products along the supply chain, particularly in the olive oil industry, is highly necessary to ensure their quality and provenance. There are multiple methods for traceability in the agro-food industry, such as Near-Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and molecular analysis. In the era of Industry 4.0, blockchain has emerged as an appealing approach for food traceability due to its ability to provide end-to-end traceability, from raw materials acquisition to product delivery to end customers. It also creates time-stamped, unalterable, auditable, and immutable transactions. This pilot research, documented in this chapter, aims to demonstrate the use of blockchain technology to track and ensure the compliance of olive oil in a selected olive mill in Jordan. The Decapolis Food Guard (DFG) platform was adopted to achieve the objectives of this study. The process began with receipt processing, which involved entering data on farmers and olives into the DFG application, including weight, olive type, source, and other relevant information. This was followed by entering all the data related to oil processing and implementing procedures for tamper-proofing and label registration. Tamper-proof labels were applied to the spout of each container and registered in the DFG system. These labels are protected to prevent copying onto other containers with unknown contents or provenance. The users of blockchain-based technology (DFG) to validate the provenance of olives, production processes, and handling of olive oil expressed high satisfaction with the system. The owner of the olive mill confirmed a 15–25% increase in sales after introducing this technology, as customers became much more confident about the authenticity of the oil. Additionally, the technology has improved the mill's capability to export its products to other Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and EU countries, as the oil has become compliant with international standards. It is recommended to scale up this technology and to raise awareness of all stakeholders about the importance of this technology in improving the agro-food industry.