A new blockchain-based traceability program intended to track food and products is debuting, and using seafood as one of its demonstration platforms.
OpenSC, created by WWF-Australia and BCG Digital Ventures, uses blockchain-based traceability to tag products at origin and then allows for tracking of the product through its supply chain. With the enhanced traceability, customers can use QR codes to determine exactly where their food or product came from – whether it be fruit, vegetables, or seafood.
That traceability should help determine whether a product came from a company or location with social welfare problems, according to WWF-Australia.
“Through OpenSC, businesses and consumers will have a whole new level of transparency about whether the food we eat is contributing to environmental degradation or social injustice such as slavery,” WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman said.
One of the first products being traced using the new blockchain platform is Austral Fisheries’ Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass. The fishery achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification in 2012, and has been ranked as a “best choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.
“We see this as an opportunity for those doing the right things to be able to showcase their products in a way that is transparent and verifiable, and what better product to showcase than Toothfish,” Austral Fisheries CEO David Carter said.
OpenSC-tracked produce was served to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this month, and a restaurant event in Sydney, Australia, showcased Austral’s toothfish.
The hope with OpenSC is that the enhanced traceability will help put pressure on IUU by increasing traceability in legitimate fisheries.
“We have developed technology that can reliably pinpoint the exact location where each Austral Toothfish was caught and then use machine learning to demonstrate that it was caught legally in an MSC-certified sustainable fishery, and in particular that the fish was not caught inside an established marine protected area or in an environmentally sensitive area,” said Paul Hunyor, BCG Digital Ventures managing director and co-chair of the World Economic Forum Council on the Future of Consumption.
While toothfish was among the first products to be traced, the OpenSC platform is designed for use on any supply chain, regardless of product.
“We’ve designed this technology to be highly compatible both with existing supply chain operations and certification systems, but also to interface with other blockchain enabled providence solutions,” Hunyor said. “It is exciting that producers who are ready to provide transparency to their customers can be on OpenSC in a very short timeframe.”
Photo courtesy of Matt Moran/Aria Restaurant
