Blockchain Based Traceability System in Food Supply Chain

Abstract

Traceability system is a system that is able to record product movements along the supply chain and trace them back. In the food supply chain, traceability systems are considered important to ensure the safety of a product. There are two data architectures commonly used in traceability systems namely one-step-forward and one-step-back and aggregated information model architecture. In one-stepforward and one-step-back architectures, tracing process takes a long time and does not guarantee the integrity of the data. In aggregated architecture, data is integrated but rely on third parties as data managers. This research explores the possibility of another type of architecture, which is the blockchain based system. Blockchain based system allows an integrated system to occur without third party by distributing all data to each member of the supply chain involved. Exploration is done by making the FoodTrail Blockchain design using four blockchain system abstraction layers. FoodTrail Blockchain records and tracks the transfer and transformation of food products in the supply chain. Transfer and transformation are stored in the blockchain and can be traced using depth first search algorithm. The design was then implemented in a prototype using the Hyperledger Sawtooth framework. The prototype that are built are evaluated based on aspects that must be considered in the traceability system (breadth, depth, precision, and access) and blockchain (distributed, verified, and immutable). The evaluation shows that FoodTrail Blockchain fulfilled the distributed, verified, and immutable aspect. The system has low performance in transaction handling related to breadth and depth aspect due to limited server capacity and complicated process. However the system has advantages related to access and precision aspect, because all transaction is verified, immutable, and stored locally in every node.