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Introduction

Globally there is an ever great challenge regarding safety of foods and there are many issues facing food industry on a global stage such as risks of contamination and fraud as well as increasing lack of transparency and what this has led to has been an increase in health risks and enormous economic loss, food is very important and key to man's survival hence it's important that it safety is ensured to ensure continuity of life and today blockchain could really help a great deal to improve the safety of food to a great extent.

There is issue of food safety challenge in the global world and blockchain could on a great extent help improve on the issues facing safety of food especially in the area of fraud and lack of transparency, blockchain comes as a viable solution to counter this challenges and it's very possible due to the very nature of blockchain offering decentralization and tamper proof system which will to a great extent help to track food product ensuring that foods are delivered promptly to their desired location without any issues whatsoever.

Blockchain outstanding features would help a great deal to ensure safety and compliance as it would improve traceability and even build the trust of consumers as well as ensure that traceability to a great extent is being improved which would all help reduce economic loss and contamination of food guaranteeing strong health as well. I will breakdown some of the ways I believe blockchain would help improve safety of foods and the issue that plagues it because food is essential for man's survival and blockchain aid in this shows that blockchain is invaluable.

Enhancing Food Traceability

Food traceability is one of the challenge facing food industry globally that blockchain could easily solve, yes there is a major challenge in this area, yes this challenges are present due to the traditional supply chain which is know for being slow due to its paper-based tracking and the traditional supply chain is know to be prone to error hence making it very cumbersome to verify in an event of potential contamination which is a serious issue as we consume this foods.

The challenge prevalent in the traditional supply chain is combated by blockchain in a rather effective way. How does blockchain do this? Well blockchain functions in this way and that's the fact it ensures that for every food product produced there is a digital identity to that product and that digital identity is stored in a secured manner in a decentralized ledger.

Being stored in decentralized ledger makes it very easy to enable real time tracking of this food product something that the traditional supply chain doesn't offer, infact we have a real world application of how blockchain does this as this is not just bunch of could or would but a real fact that blockchain could enhance food traceability. Take the example of Walmart blockchain project and it's effect. Traceability time which stands at 7 days before was greatly reduced by this Walmart blockchain project to a mere 2.2 seconds from 7 days this clearly illustrates that blockchain is much more effective and efficient in ensuring and enhancing the traceability of food hence solving a major problem facing food industry today.

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Preventing Food Fraud and Counterfeiting

This is another aspect of how blockchain helps to ensure that safety of foods and challenges facing food industry is solved, and one of the problems is food fraud and counterfeiting which has become a big issue today but ofcourse not big of an issue for the amazing robust and advanced technology. Blockchain is able to prevent food fraud and counterfeiting common in food industries today which has seriously endangered health of the consumers.

Some of the frauds we have today as it concerns food is the issues of mislabeling as well as those who strive to counterfeit premium products as well as adulteration. These are some of the food fraud facing food industries today. How does blockchain solve this? Well blockchain plays a major and pivotal role in ensuring authentication. How so?

There is a tamper-proof digital record made possible by blockchain and this digital record which is tamper proof is helping to ensure that food products are verified and authenticated and with what results or where can we see the applications. Well the applications it's very common in seafood as well as in the wine industry and other various organic products which are all very delicate. Blockchain through it's tamper proof digital records ensures there is no mislabeling as well as counterfeiting premium products or other forgery ensuring that customers and consumers receive genuine goods the way they are produced and handed down.

Improving Regulatory Compliance and Safety Standards

Blockchain also plays a major role in ensuring that there is regulatory compliance and maintains safety standards as it should especially regarding food and it's industries. Today there is compliance challenges facing food industries and that is because of the way records are kept in a manual manner using fragmented data which makes proper regulatory oversight to be rather problematic.

So in what way then do blockchain combat or solves this? Well compliance challenges created due to the traditional manner of storing data manually it's solved by blockchain as blockchain ensures automated compliance. This it does through smart contract a set of code embedded on the blockchain which would help to ensure there is a real time tracking and that would go a long way in ensuring adherence to food safety laws which is really not what it should be.

Safety laws in food is really important because food is a delicate matter one that concerns lives so it's really important that government sees to it that there is a proper safety laws guiding food ifnot there could be serious health challenges which might threaten to wipe out a nation because every one eats food so invariably is necessary. I believe every government should learn from China whose blockchain based pork supply for instance ensures safety monitoring and that food scandals are a thing of the past. It's important that a blockchain based supply chain is implemented to ensure safety food monitoring for the sake of humanity blockchain must be integrated.

Building Consumer Trust Through Transparency

This is a very important aspect too because what do you think would happen when there is no trust between the consumer and producer, well likely chaos would result inevitably, and that is sometimes felt today. Growing distrust between consumers and producers because of lack of transparency which has given rise to consumer awareness as they forever feel they are been cheated by producers.

Today consumers and customers alike want to ensure that there is a rather clear information about the origin of the food they are buying, they want to gain information about the sustainability of that food products as well and even as far as desiring to know about it's ethical sourcing and this then presents a challenge as the traditional method most times fail to accurately provide them with this information they seek much to the disappointment of the consumers.

How does blockchain solve even this pressing concern? It does so through first QR code verification. Through QR code verification it becomes easier for consumers to scan QR codes on a product to ensure that they see the perfect record of the product journey as contained in the records of the blockchain, full transparency is ensured and blockchain ensures too there is fair trade and organic certification even as far as providing carbon footprint transparency. Truly make no mistake sustainability and ethical sourcing seriously lacking could well be provide by blockchain technology. Have there ever been such a thing like blockchain? Ofcourse not, truly let's make full use of it to the fullest extent possible as it's a gift that keeps giving.

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Conclusion

Truly blockchain impact to food industries ensuring safety of foods, reducing economic loss as well as ensuring transparent and other food related issues is clear evident to us that blockchain clearly is a game changer and other industries must look towards adopting blockchain as well as blockchain fully ensures a safer food future. What more could humanity ask from this amazing technology. Ask and be amazed.