Why does food tracked with blockchain sell better? 8 uses of blockchain in the food industry

Julia

26 Sep 2019
Why does food tracked with blockchain sell better? 8 uses of blockchain in the food industry

The next time you put some lettuce in your basket, you might be able to find out exactly where it came from using blockchain technology. All the information will be out in the open – whether or not it was washed or the date it was picked up by the store. A waste of time? If that were the case, companies that use this kind of tracking for food would not see an increase in sales.

If you were given the choice between two different types of lettuce, one that was tracked with blockchain and one that has a regular tag, I can almost guarantee that after reading this article you will choose the former. Before your client does something similar, use this opportunity to take advantage of this knowledge. There are 8 reasons why food sold with the help of blockchain tastes better.

Blockchain in stores, restaurants, and hospitality establishments

The blockchain is a dispersed database in which the input data is immutable. This is possible because the data is stored in the form of blocks set up next to one another. Each new piece of information is a new block, connected to the previous blocks in such a way that block “B” always contains the time of creation and an encrypted summary of the previous element, block “A”. Simply put, it is a chain of blocks (hence “blockchain”), in which the data is impossible to falsify or modify.

The food industry uses the advantages of blockchain to track and save the “life-cycle” of the food items, and the automation of cumbersome processes. Together with the maturing of this technology, blockchain stops being associated exclusively with Bitcoin. We can, however, establish a certain analogy – an electronic currency is the answer to a reduction in trust towards financial institutions. Now, huge chains of stores and restaurants, as well as the smaller companies, can use blockchain to prove that they deserve trust from the public.

Blockchain is a safe chain of blocks - food industry (Nextrope)

Transparency is vital to earn from clients

In Poland, a lack of trust towards the food industry grew after the scandal in Masovia. It was a winter evening earlier this year when the television station TVN ran a report revealing how dangerous the practices in slaughterhouses are for the health of consumers. The journalistic investigation soon shook the rest of Europe – companies illegally purchased sick cows for slaughter, despite going against health and hygiene regulations. Furthermore, a journalist hired in one of those companies found out that the workers themselves, not a licensed veterinarian, confirmed the cows to be fit for consumption. In the meantime, products from these suspected companies were being sold in stores, and the authorities tried to locate them using… company invoices.

Incidents like this are difficult to forget. Already, 8 out of 10 consumers check where their food is coming from before buying it (Elementar UK). Customers often end up not buying a product if they suspect that it has been infused with antibiotics or contributed to the production of a significant amount of waste. How can we reassure customers? The data needs to be reliable, thorough, and easily accessible. In a system based on the blockchain, a copy of the database is available for everyone who joins the chain to see (for example a customer scanning a code). There does not need to be any trust for middlemen or even the store that created the system – the data is impossible to manipulate.

A chain of blocks – a chicken example

On the website of the supermarket chain Lidl, I keep coming across these instructions: information about the product can be found on the back of the package. Upon removing a pack chicken legs from the freezer and checking the back of the package, I see the ingredients, recommended storage conditions, the expiry date, a list of allergens, and the name of the company (but not the name of the farm). 

If those same chicken legs were in a system based on the blockchain, I would start by scanning a QR code. I would then learn that the chicken was born on the 26th April at a large farm in Turkey, during its first day alive, it was vaccinated against five illnesses; the animal ate non-GMO food with known ingredients. The chicken was sent to the slaughterhouse on the 7th July at a weight of 2.44 kg, where the veterinarian confirmed that it was not given any antibiotics, and the company confirmed the legitimacy of the quality check. A few kilometres further away, a Lidl warehouse picked up the chicken legs from a truck and directed them to the particular store, in which I do my shopping every Friday. At least that is how I imagine this to work, because to receive all this information, the store would need to go to a significant effort to collect evidence from all its partners.

Preventing poisoning means preserving reputations

Proof of identity, according to customers’ demands, was trialled by Carrefour. It took 15 days for the supermarket chain to collect all the proofs in all the formats – including on paper. After introducing a system of control over the the import on the blockchain, over two weeks of reading the data was reduced to just over two seconds. The information was generated in simple tables and maps because they were in the system from the very beginning.

If the products were not fit for consumption, it would be possible to track those products using conventional methods, but experts admit that by the time this happened, everyone would already be ill. The products keep coming, the chain of distribution becomes increasingly complex, and stores promise top quality food. In the case of recalling certain items, the stores hit the headlines and the distributor rarely takes the brunt of the responsibility. Following several cases of food poisoning at Chipotle Mexican Grill, the restaurant’s shares dropped by 45% and their sales by 37%. A well-built system warns of any faulty items before anyone even reports their first symptoms (and before it hits the internet). The item never reaches the supermarket shelf. 

It can be said that business is business, but in the case of illness it is much more than that: protection of human health and lives.

Guarantees ensure a feeling of safety

If you can vouch for something personally, you become more trustworthy in the eyes of the clients. Naturally, that equates to the trust these customers give you, and the choices they make.

A famous trick used by KFC to increase sales, that is ‘today, the chickens delivered by Adam,’ is possible to apply in large stores for the first time, because you can write that the yogurt on the shelf was made by grandma. But the consumer needs proof, and that proof comes in the form of using the name of a man who is so sure of the quality of his products that he does not hesitate to place his signature on the package. It is enough for the employee to confirm his identity at the production stage for which he is responsible. At the same time, it is in no way reminiscent of celebrity clichés bought. We know that the slogan ‘recommended by Gordon Ramsay’ is printed on packaging in bulk and guarantees ... effectively nothing.

Good advertising stands out

Certificates are becoming an increasingly vital part of the marketing strategy. Gone are the days when consumers were indifferent to the actions of enterprises for sustainable development or how they care for the environment. The best evidence for this is the "Fairtrade" labeling that has tripled the sales of Milka and Dairy Milk chocolates.

Food products with a certificate of quality are usually more expensive than their counterparts that do not have these certificates. On the other hand, the lack of clear directives in the European Union leads to situations where the "eco-carrot" differs from the regular carrot by its positioning on the shelf. Blockchain can convince customers that this might be the case everywhere else, but not at your store.

Registration of certificates in this chain of blocks allows for quick and easy verification of authenticity and validity of granted certificates. Since September 2017, all new or updated certificates in Poland have a QR code that can be read using a smartphone. The system performs verification, and it takes just a second to know everything about the veracity of the declaration, its conditions and the dates between which it applies. It is easy to forget how much effort was needed to get some of this data.

Convenience as an incentive

Simple to use for both the company and the user, QR codes do not require double-checking by the employee or manually entering the data. The customer needs only to scan the product to see its certificates and all of its history. The customer may not know that the technology that enables him to shop more healthily than previously is called blockchain. At Nextrope, however, we are observing growing public awareness of the blockchain and its capabilities.

In the case of mobile applications, we consider the UX (User Experience) elements to be key, which is associated with UI (User Interface). The first time an app is launched is usually not the last – that is why investing in the system is not everything that matters. Note that customers will use the smartphone with one hand, maneuvering between successive alleys. The way from the farm to the plate is a lot of information - there is no time or space to list it all, but when condensed into something more accessible, too much is omitted, unless the scanner catches the QR code. The application must be simple and accessible, and only then will the user return to it with pleasure.

Scanning a QR code by phone - food industry and blockchain - Nextrope

Regular habits as an advantage over competitors

Soon shopping, especially in the department of healthy food, will start to feel strange without scanning QR codes. Carrefour is the first network to develop a habit of inquiry, and a very powerful network at that. Consumers used to this network will pick up items in other stores in search of the black and white code. Since these other stores have not decided to introduce QR codes, customers will be justified in their anxiety that the store is hiding something - because why else would it not share its data?

Freshness equates to the customer satisfaction 

Shops with pseudo-health food are a scourge. Even if the food is healthy, its storage leaves much to be desired, for example olive oil exposed to the sun for too long simply loses its properties. In this case, when preparing meals, it is better not to think for too long whether or not adding olive oil to the salad salad on it makes any sense health-wise.

The supply chain is worth integrating with the data stored on the products themselves (in the form of a bar code or QR code), as well as commonly used sensors (such as RFID). The process starts on the production line, where sensors alert the producer about any irregularities and record the general condition of the goods. Measurements can be taken all the way up to the time of purchase. Based on this data it is easy to estimate when any potential corruption will occur and, in the spirit of Zero Waste, prevent it in the future. Notifications draw the seller’s attention to bad carrots before the customer finds them on the shelf. Several departments further, a parent who scans the code on a package of baby milk checks to see if anyone has already opened it. Demand for goods can be seen on a map. Our problem is not the amount of food, in fact we have too much of it; rather, the problem is its quality.

Trust is profit

The association of a brand with good quality food attracts health-conscious customers like a magnet. Compared to its competition, a store that provides insight into production using blockchain technology inspires more confidence. When Lidl started introducing individual fit products or occasional health weeks, they did so knowing fully well about the halo effect. This trust can be extended further – knowing that these products are perfectly fine to consume, it is also worth for the customer to buy butter, kefir, and flip flops.

But customers will not only reach for more products, they will also be able to spend a lot more money on them; indeed, 72% of millennials are ready to pay extra for food with a positive impact on the environment.

Blockchain technology can, with equal effectiveness, increase prices in restaurants. On the one hand, a customer can buy regular wine, on the other hand, the customer can also buy wine from a sunny, family winery in Italy, where the grapes were left on the bush for longer and were additionally macerated, i.e. putting the grape skins in contact with freshly squeezed juice to soften them. Following fermentation, the wine matures in an oak barrel arranged in a quiet cellar for 2 years, and only then does the host pour them into the bottle that the customer purchases. Ultimately, good storytelling sells.

Nestlé and blockchain

Nestlé's efforts to prove to parents worldwide that their Gerber soups and dinners deserve trust from consumers are suitable for a separate entry. The corporation, among others, advertised that meals for children must meet 500 times more stringent standards than those for adults. At last, the maiden project with solid blockchain foundations was launched.

People want to know, quite rightly, where ingredients they give to their baby have come from. We wanted a product in which trust means something.

- Chris Tyas, Nestlé's supply chain director

At the time of writing this article, the company convinces customers of this by promoting the addition of three types of vegetables and fruit in one meal: puree from sweet potato, apple and pumpkin. Impatient parents are waiting for test results, and if Gerber actually introduces new technology, it may dominate the sale of these baby foods.

Is this a good time to introduce blockchain to a company?

Please verify whether or not I can give this to a two-year-old.

Hi, I wonder if these flakes are really organic, or if this is just marketing again ...

Does anyone know anything about this farm and its composition analysis. I try to eat healthy, should I order their food?

If eating dilemmas were not such a huge part of our everyday life, countless queries of this type would not appear in online forums about healthy lifestyles. Increasingly aware consumers do not fall easily for the packaging with a green leaf on it. We can safely say that until now, the only thing that has kept us from tracking the supply chain was the enormous amount of work that would have to be put into collecting data from incompatible IT systems.

You do not have to look far: when introducing blockchain to a company, it is worth choosing products that we are proud of and that adequately represent the company – picking just one is enough. Walmart started with mangoes, Auchan with carrots, and Carrefour with chicken, and not even a year went by when the networks had to take their initial plans into account - the sale of "blocked" products exceeded all expectations.

According to the new plan of the French network, by the end of the year customers will be able to scan 100 new products, and in three years all the products that belong to the quality brand. It is rare to see such enthusiasm from a supermarket chain – Carrefour boasts of the "halo effect" and announces that tracking the supply chain with blockchain will expand with clothes. Hopefully they will be true to their word.

The food industry can sell better

Shops, restaurants and farms that implement blockchain to track the supply chain are seeing a significant increase in sales, which is nothing unexpected. In the wake of further scandals and food fraud, disclosing the history of selected products is the best way to win the trust of your customers and to make consumers happy with their purchasing decisions. Customers transfer high-quality associations to all products in the range or menu.

To increase the convenience and pleasure in shopping for users, it is worth investing heavily into mobile applications. Blockchain technology in the food industry has even greater potential in combination with AI (Artificial Intelligence), with buyers always getting fresh food, and the company avoiding a loss in reputation when recalling goods.

Consumers want to be more and more aware of what they are eating, and their food quality requirements are increasing. Furthermore, major brands have already begun to introduce customers to scanning QR codes before purchasing items.

So, which lettuce are you going for?

Julia Wolińska

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AI in Real Estate: How Does It Support the Housing Market?

Miłosz Mach

18 Mar 2025
AI in Real Estate: How Does It Support the Housing Market?

The digital transformation is reshaping numerous sectors of the economy, and real estate is no exception. By 2025, AI will no longer be a mere gadget but a powerful tool that facilitates customer interactions, streamlines decision-making processes, and optimizes sales operations. Simultaneously, blockchain technology ensures security, transparency, and scalability in transactions. With this article, we launch a series of publications exploring AI in business, focusing today on the application of artificial intelligence within the real estate industry.

AI vs. Tradition: Key Implementations of AI in Real Estate

Designing, selling, and managing properties—traditional methods are increasingly giving way to data-driven decision-making.

Breakthroughs in Customer Service

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are revolutionizing how companies interact with their customers. These tools handle hundreds of inquiries simultaneously, personalize offers, and guide clients through the purchasing process. Implementing AI agents can lead to higher-quality leads for developers and automate responses to most standard customer queries. However, technical challenges in deploying such systems include:

  • Integration with existing real estate databases: Chatbots must have access to up-to-date listings, prices, and availability.
  • Personalization of communication: Systems must adapt their interactions to individual customer needs.
  • Management of industry-specific knowledge: Chatbots require specialized expertise about local real estate markets.

Advanced Data Analysis

Cognitive AI systems utilize deep learning to analyze complex relationships within the real estate market, such as macroeconomic trends, local zoning plans, and user behavior on social media platforms. Deploying such solutions necessitates:

  • Collecting high-quality historical data.
  • Building infrastructure for real-time data processing.
  • Developing appropriate machine learning models.
  • Continuously monitoring and updating models based on new data.

Intelligent Design

Generative artificial intelligence is revolutionizing architectural design. These advanced algorithms can produce dozens of building design variants that account for site constraints, legal requirements, energy efficiency considerations, and aesthetic preferences.

Optimizing Building Energy Efficiency

Smart building management systems (BMS) leverage AI to optimize energy consumption while maintaining resident comfort. Reinforcement learning algorithms analyze data from temperature, humidity, and air quality sensors to adjust heating, cooling, and ventilation parameters effectively.

Integration of AI with Blockchain in Real Estate

The convergence of AI with blockchain technology opens up new possibilities for the real estate sector. Blockchain is a distributed database where information is stored in immutable "blocks." It ensures transaction security and data transparency while AI analyzes these data points to derive actionable insights. In practice, this means that ownership histories, all transactions, and property modifications are recorded in an unalterable format, with AI aiding in interpreting these records and informing decision-making processes.

AI has the potential to bring significant value to the real estate sector—estimated between $110 billion and $180 billion by experts at McKinsey & Company.

Key development directions over the coming years include:

  • Autonomous negotiation systems: AI agents equipped with game theory strategies capable of conducting complex negotiations.
  • AI in urban planning: Algorithms designed to plan city development and optimize spatial allocation.
  • Property tokenization: Leveraging blockchain technology to divide properties into digital tokens that enable fractional investment opportunities.

Conclusion

For companies today, the question is no longer "if" but "how" to implement AI to maximize benefits and enhance competitiveness. A strategic approach begins with identifying specific business challenges followed by selecting appropriate technologies.

What values could AI potentially bring to your organization?
  • Reduction of operational costs through automation
  • Enhanced customer experience and shorter transaction times
  • Increased accuracy in forecasts and valuations, minimizing business risks
Nextrope Logo

Want to implement AI in your real estate business?

Nextrope specializes in implementing AI and blockchain solutions tailored to specific business needs. Our expertise allows us to:

  • Create intelligent chatbots that serve customers 24/7
  • Implement analytical systems for property valuation
  • Build secure blockchain solutions for real estate transactions
Schedule a free consultation

Or check out other articles from the "AI in Business" series

AI-Driven Frontend Automation: Elevating Developer Productivity to New Heights

Gracjan Prusik

11 Mar 2025
AI-Driven Frontend Automation: Elevating Developer Productivity to New Heights

AI Revolution in the Frontend Developer's Workshop

In today's world, programming without AI support means giving up a powerful tool that radically increases a developer's productivity and efficiency. For the modern developer, AI in frontend automation is not just a curiosity, but a key tool that enhances productivity. From automatically generating components, to refactoring, and testing – AI tools are fundamentally changing our daily work, allowing us to focus on the creative aspects of programming instead of the tedious task of writing repetitive code. In this article, I will show how these tools are most commonly used to work faster, smarter, and with greater satisfaction.

This post kicks off a series dedicated to the use of AI in frontend automation, where we will analyze and discuss specific tools, techniques, and practical use cases of AI that help developers in their everyday tasks.

AI in Frontend Automation – How It Helps with Code Refactoring

One of the most common uses of AI is improving code quality and finding errors. These tools can analyze code and suggest optimizations. As a result, we will be able to write code much faster and significantly reduce the risk of human error.

How AI Saves Us from Frustrating Bugs

Imagine this situation: you spend hours debugging an application, not understanding why data isn't being fetched. Everything seems correct, the syntax is fine, yet something isn't working. Often, the problem lies in small details that are hard to catch when reviewing the code.

Let’s take a look at an example:

function fetchData() {
    fetch("htts://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts")
      .then((response) => response.json())
      .then((data) => console.log(data))
      .catch((error) => console.error(error));
}

At first glance, the code looks correct. However, upon running it, no data is retrieved. Why? There’s a typo in the URL – "htts" instead of "https." This is a classic example of an error that could cost a developer hours of frustrating debugging.

When we ask AI to refactor this code, not only will we receive a more readable version using newer patterns (async/await), but also – and most importantly – AI will automatically detect and fix the typo in the URL:

async function fetchPosts() {
    try {
      const response = await fetch(
        "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts"
      );
      const data = await response.json();
      console.log(data);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(error);
    }
}

How AI in Frontend Automation Speeds Up UI Creation

One of the most obvious applications of AI in frontend development is generating UI components. Tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude can generate component code based on a short description or an image provided to them.

With these tools, we can create complex user interfaces in just a few seconds. Generating a complete, functional UI component often takes less than a minute. Furthermore, the generated code is typically error-free, includes appropriate animations, and is fully responsive, adapting to different screen sizes. It is important to describe exactly what we expect.

Here’s a view generated by Claude after entering the request: “Based on the loaded data, display posts. The page should be responsive. The main colors are: #CCFF89, #151515, and #E4E4E4.”

Generated posts view

AI in Code Analysis and Understanding

AI can analyze existing code and help understand it, which is particularly useful in large, complex projects or code written by someone else.

Example: Generating a summary of a function's behavior

Let’s assume we have a function for processing user data, the workings of which we don’t understand at first glance. AI can analyze the code and generate a readable explanation:

function processUserData(users) {
  return users
    .filter(user => user.isActive) // Checks the `isActive` value for each user and keeps only the objects where `isActive` is true
    .map(user => ({ 
      id: user.id, // Retrieves the `id` value from each user object
      name: `${user.firstName} ${user.lastName}`, // Creates a new string by combining `firstName` and `lastName`
      email: user.email.toLowerCase(), // Converts the email address to lowercase
    }));
}

In this case, AI not only summarizes the code's functionality but also breaks down individual operations into easier-to-understand segments.

AI in Frontend Automation – Translations and Error Detection

Every frontend developer knows that programming isn’t just about creatively building interfaces—it also involves many repetitive, tedious tasks. One of these is implementing translations for multilingual applications (i18n). Adding translations for each key in JSON files and then verifying them can be time-consuming and error-prone.

However, AI can significantly speed up this process. Using ChatGPT, DeepSeek, or Claude allows for automatic generation of translations for the user interface, as well as detecting linguistic and stylistic errors.

Example:

We have a translation file in JSON format:

{
  "welcome_message": "Welcome to our application!",
  "logout_button": "Log out",
  "error_message": "Something went wrong. Please try again later."
}

AI can automatically generate its Polish version:

{
  "welcome_message": "Witaj w naszej aplikacji!",
  "logout_button": "Wyloguj się",
  "error_message": "Coś poszło nie tak. Spróbuj ponownie później."
}

Moreover, AI can detect spelling errors or inconsistencies in translations. For example, if one part of the application uses "Log out" and another says "Exit," AI can suggest unifying the terminology.

This type of automation not only saves time but also minimizes the risk of human errors. And this is just one example – AI also assists in generating documentation, writing tests, and optimizing performance, which we will discuss in upcoming articles.

Summary

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way frontend developers work daily. From generating components and refactoring code to detecting errors, automating testing, and documentation—AI significantly accelerates and streamlines the development process. Without these tools, we would lose a lot of valuable time, which we certainly want to avoid.

In the next parts of this series, we will cover topics such as:

Stay tuned to keep up with the latest insights!