If you’ve been to the supermarket and had second thoughts about picking up organic food,or questioned the authenticity of the organic labels on the products, you’re not alone. This has been a challenge ever since the organic trend swept the food industry and it was this that drove Sailekya Sheral, a Computer Science student from BVRIT Hyderabad, to come up with a solution to help people find out is their food was truly organic.
“The only way to prove the authenticity of the organic products, is when the farmer shows the certificate to prove it. But the organic food doesn’t come directly from the farmer, it has to travel through a vast network involving farmers, warehouses,manufacturers, retailers before finally reaching the end customers. In this process, there are chances of food adulterations. When these adulterations happen, we cannot hold one person responsible, without proof. This is where I believe that supply chain tracking is weak due to some parameters”
As a solution to this issue, Sailekya is working on a project that uses the hyper ledger fabric blockchain platform provided by IBM. “The farmer initially enters details of the crops using the RFID tags. From there, the food is transitioned to the warehouses, then to retailers and finally to the end customers. With blockchain, the updating becomes automated and because there is no single point of control, the authenticity will be marked. I believe this project will help the customers know how organic is their organic food really is”.