A Content-Analysis Based Literature Review in Blockchain Adoption within Food Supply Chain

Jiang Duan, Chen Zhang, Yu Gong, Steve Brown and Zhi Li
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Jiang Duan: Blockchain Research Center of China, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
Chen Zhang: Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Yu Gong: Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Steve Brown: Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Zhi Li: School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one out of 10 people get sick from eating contaminated food. Complex food production process and globalization make food supply chain more delicate. Many technologies have been investigated in recent years to address food insecurity and achieve efficiency in dealing with food recalls. One of the most promising technologies is Blockchain, which has already been used successfully in financial aspects, such as bitcoin, and it is attracting interests from food supply chain organizations. As blockchain has characteristics, such as decentralization, security, immutability, smart contract, it is therefore expected to improve sustainable food supply chain management and food traceability. This paper applies a content-analysis based literature review in blockchain adoption within food supply chain. We propose four benefits. Blockchain can help to improve food traceability, information transparency, and recall efficiency; it can also be combined with Internet of things (IoT) to achieve better efficiency. We also propose five potential challenges, including lack of deeper understanding of blockchain, technology difficulties, raw data manipulation, difficulties of getting all stakeholders on board, and the deficiency of regulations.

Keywords: blockchain; food supply chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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