Improving the Trustworthiness of Traceability Data in Food Supply Chain Using Blockchain and Trust Model

Abstract

The food supply chain is characterised by its complexity and interconnectedness, involving various actors, from farmers to consumers. It emphasises the critical importance of maintaining product integrity, safety, and quality throughout the process to meet stringent regulatory standards and consumer expectations. However, food supply chain is plagued by challenges such as counterfeiting, quality issues, and safety concerns, prompting the adoption of product traceability as a remedy. Current traceability systems (e.g., systems based on centralised and EPCIS architectures) aim to capture traceability data from the initial link to the final link in the supply chain, allowing for tracing a product from the end consumer back to its origin. Nevertheless, trust issues persist in these systems, particularly concerning the integrity and reliability of traceability data. Blockchain has been proposed to address these trust issues by creating an immutable and transparent ledger distributed across all peers. Despite this innovation, different studies underscore the inadequacy of relying solely on blockchain to ensure the trustworthiness of traceability data. This paper addresses this gap by proposing an adaptable and extensible framework that combines blockchain with a multi-trust packages-based trust model. The framework seeks to strengthen trust relationships among supply chain actors by improving the accuracy of identifying specific areas within the supply chain where compromises in quality and safety have occurred.