Blockchain Enabled Quality Management in Short Food Supply Chains

Abstract

Food system (re)localisation involves moving food systems back to local areas and a result are the short food supply chains. Food system (re)localisation is occurring to offset the perceived negative impacts of global food systems. Short food supply chains may face challenges in terms of quality set at national and international levels. Short food supply chains will benefit from technologies that can be developed to meet specific requirements which can be significantly different from those in conventional level food supply chains. One such digital technology is blockchain. This paper aims to present a blockchain based quality management architecture developed for short food supply chains. Requirements for the blockchain architecture are based on existing literature on quality management in food supply chains, with an emphasis on the specifics of quality and re-localisation in short food supply chains. Also considered in the architecture are the characteristic features of blockchain, with some emphasis on trust management and smart contracts. The adoption considerations regarding the resulting architecture are highlighted. It is concluded that the architecture has features relevant to the short food supply chain that differs from conventional food supply chains. Future work regarding implementation and validation of the architecture developed is suggested.