IGR Token-Raw Material and Ingredient Certification of Recipe Based Foods Using Smart Contracts

Abstract

The use of smart contracts and blockchain tokens to implement a consumer trustworthy ingredient certification scheme for commingled foods, i.e., recipe based, food products is described. The proposed framework allows ingredients that carry any desired property (including social or environmental customer perceived value) to be certified by any certification authority, at the moment of harvest or extraction, using the IGR Ethereum token. The mechanism involves the transfer of tokens containing the internet url published at the authority’s web site from the farmer all along the supply chain to the final consumer at each transfer of custody of the ingredient using the Cricital Tracking Event/Key Data Elements (CTE/KDE) philosophy of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). This allows the end consumer to easily inspect and be assured of the origin of the ingredient by means of a mobile application. A successful code implementation of the framework was deployed, tested and is running as a beta version on the Ethereum live blockchain as the IGR token. The main contribution of the framework is the possibility to ensure the true origin of any instance or lot of ingredient within a recipe to the customer, without harming the food processor legitimate right to protect its recipes and suppliers.

Third Party Certification of Agri-Food Supply Chain Using Smart Contracts and Blockchain Tokens

“…This paper significantly extended previous work [ 33 ], which focused on the traceability of commingled foods. The present research and smart contract code retains the original functionalities while extending the framework to allow for non fungible objects such as harvests of food products to be certified as unique objects.…”

“…In [ 33 ], an ERC-20 Ethereum token, named the IGR token, and its smart contracts is shown to allow consumers to evidence TPC for any “consumer value perceived property”. This includes properties in physical, biological, social, or environmental domains.…”

“…The IGR token smart contract code used for ingredient certification in [ 33 ] was modified to implement the non-fungible token (NFT) discipline that better represent each instance of a crop with the use of the ERC-1155 ( accessed on 3 August 2021) objects and methods. A set of public blockchain smart contracts govern the token synchronization framework to positively identify each harvest along the food supply chain to the end consumer.…”

Blockchain Applications in Agribusiness: A Systematic Review

“…Therefore, any consumer can check, in public accounting, the information on the food packages. Dos Santos et al [66] proposed a prototype for the certification and traceability of food products, aiming at tracing the origins of the raw materials without revealing confidential business information. They used the code within Rinkeby Testnet blockchain, applying it to practical examples, including peanuts, cocoa, and apple juice, which are basic ingredients of recipes, thus, demonstrating the feasibility of using the Ingredient Token (IGR) as a methodological figure of certification of ingredients from the farmer to the final consumer, without exposing the formula of the product mixture.…”

Optimizing global food supply chains: The case for blockchain and GSI standards

“…The contribution of GS1 to the de facto individualization of food products has motivated the study of dos Santos, Torrisi, Yamada, & Pantoni (2019) , who examine the traceability requirements in recipe-based foods and propose whole-chain traceability with a focus on ingredient certification. With the use of Blockchain technology, it is possible to verify the source of any batch or a lot number of ingredients.…”