The Significance of Blockchain for Food Security in Italy

Some Italian companies that produce agrifood are starting to use innovative technologies especially blockchain to track the transformation of sustenance. The distributed ledger technology (DLT) will help to improve safety within the food industry.

Even the food industry sector could benefit enormously, in economic and security terms, from the large-scale application of the latest digital technologies. Over 1,600 food sector professionals, active worldwide, have answered specific questions to establish how much this industry is in step with the times. As a result, only 1/10 companies uses modern technologies to ensure the safety of foodstuffs.

Improving Nourishment Quality with Blockchain

However, this percentage is expected to increase to 40% by 2022. As per the report, the most advanced in the agrifood sector are Asians: 57% of food companies in the Far East state that they intend to use the DLT by 2021. Italy is among the countries that is doing well in the use of blockchain tech in the agrifood sector.

Much of the safety of industrially processed foodstuff depends on two factors: traceability and the application of best practices when handling products at the factory. Traceability is necessary to avoid foodstuff frauds, and blockchain is a master solution of this issue.

Applying DLT to the sustenance chain is one of the tools to solve these and other problems, because the DLT makes it very difficult to manipulate data without being discovered.

A foodstuff company Bofrost Italia did it, using the EY OpsChain Traceability technology that uses Ethereum's public blockchain. Every player in the supply chain, every producer of raw materials who then become a frozen Bofrost, is registered and his information can no longer be changed. Every passage, transaction and transformation of the raw materials up to the frozen final product is recorded and, thanks to the distributed ledger tech, it is not possible to manipulate this information.

The DLT has also been applied in Auchan supply chain of carrots. All consumers can be able to track and trace the source of all carrots products obtainable in various shops and supermarkets. Furthermore, financial technology novelties couldn’t aid but arbitrate in the most renowned area in Italy - the wine industry. 

Also, the Maestro Gelatiere three cones Gambero Rosso, Alberto Marchetti, will soon present an innovative blockchain platform dedicated to ice cream at Bra. The ice cream blockchain will be one of the great innovations at Cheese 2019, the Italian event dedicated to the quality dairy world that will be held from 20 to 23 September in Bra in the province of Cuneo. 

Another potent startup is considering to use blockchain tech to improve the safety baby’s nutrition. The firm promises to guarantee the safety by about 90% of the constituents used in diet products for broods, as we reported. Different companies are deploying or planning to use DLT in various products including milk and palm oil (e.g. Nestle), Rice and others.

Ministry of Economic Development previously signposted its interest in blockchain tech by investing over €40 mln. The distributed ledger technology has a momentous potential for the whole agrifood sector in the nation and may produce a number of groundbreaking innovations and improvements in the  near future.