Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Food quality traceability prototype for restaurants using blockchain

and food quality data index
Reno Varghese George a, Hari Om Harsh a, *, Papri Ray b, Alex K. Babu a
a
Department of Lean Operations & Systems, Institute of Management, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, 560029, India
b
Garden City University & Assistant Professor at Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, 560029, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As competition between organizations are evolving into competition between supply chains, to survive
Received 15 February 2019 and indeed grow, it is necessary to deliver added value to customers. Traceability has emerged as one of
Received in revised form the key measures of operational efficiencies within supply chains and ultimately, customer service. Over
10 August 2019
the years, organizations have deployed number of methods in delivering food traceability. This paper
Accepted 11 August 2019
Available online 13 August 2019
examines major methods of food traceability currently in existence and proposes a restaurant prototype
for implementing more reliable food traceability using Blockchain and product identifiers. The prototype
^ as de
Handling Editor: Cecilia Maria Villas Bo captures data from various stakeholders across the food supply chain, segregates it and finally, applies
Almeida the Food Quality Index (FQI) algorithm to generate an FQI value. The FQI value helps in identifying
whether the food is good for consumption on specified parameters. FQI value is generated based on
Keywords: extant standard storage and handling regulations specified by food safety authorities, and checks
Food traceability whether value so derived, is within the permissible range. The prototype helps in grading food quality for
Blockchain human consumption besides strengthening food (product) traceability. This prototype can be customized
Food quality index
to address future requirements of traceability triggered through new information emanating from any
stakeholder or the node in the supply chain.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In order to ensure traceability, a system is required to be inno-

Food traceability requirements are increasing for an organiza-
tion's supply chain for gaining competitive advantage and promi-
nently addressing concerns on food safety and nutritional issues.
Increased standard of living is making food consumers, highly
concerned not only about the taste of the food but also quality,
cleanliness and authenticity. This drives organizations to adapt to
the latest technologies in serving customers with the maximum
value addition possible. Increased customer concerns about food
quality also necessitates reliability and integrity of information in a
convenient and easy to understand approach. A food supply chain
addressing these concerns of authentic information, can help or-
ganizations to achieve a bigger leap in their stakeholder satisfac-
tion, involvement and thereby contributing towards the
sustainability of supply chain.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: reno.george@mba.christuniversity.in (R.V. George), harsh.
hariom@gmail.com (H.O. Harsh), papri.ray@christuniversity.in (P. Ray), alex.babu@
mba.christuniversity.in (A.K. Babu).
vated to record and transfer information regarding products,
quality, parts, safety or any other information, related to product or
stakeholder activity at any nodes in the chain. Several technologies
had been evolved over time, in tracking products through the
supply chain to varying extents. The major traditional food trace-
ability technologies include Radio Frequency Identification De-
vices (RFID), Barcode readers, isotopic technologies, firm-
specific traceability mechanisms, etc. RFID and barcode readers
is an integrated technology which commonly uses the information
of the food products received at collection center. At collection
center, the food is processed, packaged and distributed to the dis-
tribution center. The products are then sent to main distribution
hub across cities to the final food consumers. This system gathers
information at the back-end systems and ensures information only
to the organisation database for their shrinkage control and other
quality control measures. Isotopic technologies comply with In-
ternational Standards Organisation (ISO) norms which correlates to
specific isotopes of the food products and it measures the stable
isotopic composition of the elements which should be present in
the specific food products. European Union has approved these

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118021
0959-6526/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021
technologies for the laboratory analysis of the isotopes on the food
products and maintains the reliability and quality documentation.
However, it does not set the specific standard measurement model
which could provide ease of traceability to the consumers and or-
ganisations, since laboratory test on finding isotopes is a difficult
approach in day to day practice of quality control. There are firm
specific systems which are also in place by specific multinational
organisations which can afford technological cost of implementa-
tion to address the food traceability concerns and thereby handle
the quality control mechanism. However, it becomes a liability and
surmounts to obsolescence at later stages due to dated approach
used earlier during implementation.
Any concerns regarding food safety like quality, adulteration,
wastage, demands for regulation and guidelines, etc. can be
addressed by the discussed traceability system. The rising global
demands of the customer for the authenticity of the food, nutri-
tional values, safety, and top quality makes the supply chain
complicated. There are several concerns in terms of food quality
and safety specific to supply chain. Organizations are in search of an
efficient and scalable systems to address these problems in the long
run. The blockchain is the latest technology, which is a distributed,
digital ledger that can record transactions in multiple series of
blocks. This is a decentralized system that does not depend on a
single entity for safekeeping, hence ensuring security. Blockchain
brings a new hope in the quality control systems which ensures
traceability right from post-harvest and food distribution across
nodes with its involved stakeholders in the value chain. The main
context of the research is to engrave a suitable blockchain based
prototype model that can be implemented for restaurants in
order to ensure quality food to consumers through specified
standards of storage and handling as per regulatory authorities.
Blockchain ensures standardisation, cost-effectiveness, information
safety and reliability of the technology when implemented for the
food quality aspects of traceability. Using the existing mechanism
proposed by reputed organisations like IBM for their blockchain
capability, the research discusses a mathematical model to arrive at
an index for food quality complying with storage and handling
regulations for the food products accepted globally. The proof of
concept is developed considering pork meat set standards as per
the regulatory bodies, and its quality index is discussed, on scale
which is developed to provide a reference on the measurements.
Inputs on this model has also been taken from various hotel func-
tionalities in Bangalore, a city that resonates as a food hub in India
for understanding nuances.
2. Literature review
2.1. Traceability as measures for food quality control
With changing lifestyle and increasing income of people, food
consumption is increasing. The future of agriculture must answer
problems regarding food safety, protection of the environment and
profitability. There is a shift from quantity-oriented production
towards quality, safety, sustainability and functionality-oriented
production. The traceability of food products is considered from
farm to fork using modern technologies for authenticity and quality
of food products. As businesses and global markets are turning out
to be highly efficient, the competition is shifting from ‘between
businesses’ towards value chain. From the marketing perspective,
traceability across the supply chain assures consistent delivery of
products to customers ensuring safety. Correspondingly, the de-
mand for traceability has been increased due to food-related safety
hazards and scares (Opara, 2003). Objectives for companies to have
traceability are for safety and quality control, to improve supply
chain management and to market and differentiate foods (Golan
et al., 2004). Traceability encompasses major benefit of the
improvement in supply chain management, increase of the ability
to retain existing customers, product differentiation, product
quality improvement, and reduction of customer complaints (Mai,
2010).
2.2. Technologies for food quality control
There are several methods implemented for tracking of food
products. RFID and Bar code integrated supply chains provides
actionable and timely data for the flow of products through the
supply chain and traceability for regulatory compliance. In this
approach, data collection is highly accurate, and it helps in pre-
venting errors in order picking and shipping. RFID enhances food
recall mechanism through efficient traceability of the products. But
environmental factors like moisture and temperature variations
can cause damage to barcode and make it unreadable on transfer to
longer distance (Ren, 2015). Taiwan Council of agriculture estab-
lished a food traceability system. However, the consumers were
only able to receive little information regarding the production. All
the information in the process were recorded manually by the
farmers. Japanese government supported food traceability system
development which focussed on quality and safety of the food. The
RFID system can record information more automatically and help
the consumer to get complete information and to ensure safety
(Chen et al., 2008). Bar code system can be easily damaged and are
not very attractive for the food sector. Though RFID is small and
compatible with food products, they may be very expensive causing
problems to the stakeholders. (Scarano and Rao, 2014).
Isotopic techniques based on analytical strategy are used, to
verify the declared origin of food, to trace contaminated food
products back to their source. Isotopic techniques are correlated
with laboratory base methodology which uses to assess the iso-
topes of the food products and its composition in the specified
ratio. The analysis is carried out for the limited samples which are
received at equipped labs for testing. Quality assured databases of a
wide range of food samples are required for this method. It uses
advanced biological methods like cavity-ring-down spectroscopy
(CRDS) for distinguishing varieties of a product and helps in iden-
tifying adulterated ones. The variability of stable isotopes in bio-
logical tissues help in determining the geographical origin of the
product, freshwater or marine fish and variety in the environment.
Isotopic and elemental fingerprinting, when used with food safety
surveillance programmes, gives independent verification of food
traceability systems. More than food safety the method can be used
to address problems pertaining to cultural and religious issues. For
a product's isotopic fingerprint, there is a need for high quality
assured databases of authentic food samples (Donelly, 2011). Using
DNA Barcoding or eDNA (environmental DNA), major agricultural
products are monitored widely and characterized using the analysis
of DNA markers developed specifically for each cultivar. Analysis of
Proteins or DNA is used as a major tool for crop traceability as it
undergoes various processes during the manufacturing process.
DNA coding had advantages combining major innovations viz.
standardization of processes and computerization. This method
greatly helps against adulteration, commercial frauds and
dangerous substitutions (Galimberti et al., 2014). Molecular trace-
ability based on DNA proved effective to protect European quality
labelled premium products such as IPG label for beef certification,
or PDO labelled tomato variety. The main limitation of this method
is the variability in molecules of organisms. Hence, this requires a
high level of resolution for organisms with low intraspecific poly-
morphism (Scarano and Rao, 2014). The isotopic methods are not
simplified, and it is difficult for implementation for restaurant's
food supply chain. Some other practical examples of food supply
 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021
chain traceability for quality control implementations are shown in
Table 1(see Table 2).
2.3. Blockchain and its upper hand in food traceability for quality
control
Blockchain is a mutually distributed ledgers which are based on
series of innovations used by the organisations for sharing the
digital data. Seebacher and Schüritz (2017) defines blockchain as
“A blockchain is a distributed database, which is shared among and
agreed upon a peer-to-peer network. It consists of a linked
sequence of blocks (a storage unit of transaction), holding time-
stamped transactions that are secured by public-key cryptography
(i.e., “hash”) and verified by the network community. Once an
element is appended to the blockchain, it cannot be altered, turning
a blockchain into an immutable record of past activity.”
All the above discussed technologies for food quality trace-
ability, includes high financial involvement, whereas blockchain
technology comparatively requires less expense for the long
term and provides data authenticity for consumers through
which data can be tracked to the producer or to the farm.
Blockchain can be a game changer, as it saves transaction time from
days to near instantaneous, removes overheads and intermediary
costs, reduces the risk of tampering, fraud, and cybercrime and
increases trust through shared processes and record keeping
(Galvin, 2017). Walmart in assistance with IBM, implemented
Blockchain for ensuring food safety for products like pork and
mango. It ensures visibility by capturing data from various nodes,
starting from the farm, packing house, and transportation to the
final customer. The technology enabled them in digitally tracking
individual pork items in few minutes, compared to the number of
days in the past, as records of its current location is easily identi-
fiable. It helped the company in reducing the overhead and inter-
mediary costs. Reduced risk of tampering and fraud, increased trust
of stakeholders through shared processes and record keeping are
the advantages for the company. This technology has cost-saving
implications for retailers, as Walmart would be able to recall spe-
cifically damaged products rather than the entire product line
(Kshetri, 2018). The speed of identifying and detection of a
product can be done in a blink of an eye in a blockchain as
compared to the same result produced by a centralized system.
These features allow blockchain to be used as a beneficial mar-
keting tool and can create more loyalty among customers. In the
blockchain, external traceability is highly dependent upon coordi-
nation and collaboration of information sharing and logistic pro-
cesses between companies in the supply chain (Jeppsson and
Table 1
Various methods implemented for food traceability.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN TRACEABILITY FOR QUALITY CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION/PROPOSAL
Meat and Poultry Supply Chain (Buhr, 2003)
Agriculture Supply Chain (R abade and Alfaro, 2006)
Food Supply Chain (Kelepouris et al., 2007)
Cheese Supply Chain (Bechini et al., 2008)
Fish Supply Chain (Mai, 2010)
Halal Traceability (Zailani et al., 2010)
Agri Food Supply Chain (Costa et al., 2013)
Agriculture Supply Chain (Bosona and Gebresenbet, 2013)
Food Supply Chain (Bhatt et al., 2013)
Agri, Pork, Mutton, Chicken & Beef Supply Chain (Tian, 2016)
Potato Supply Chain (Gores, 2017)
a
TTI e Time Temperature Indicators.
b
AIDC e Automatic Identification and Data Capturing.
3
Olsson, 2017). A blockchain will have many features viz. trustable,
decentralized, reliable database, collective and anonymous. Block-
chain helps in building a foundation for secure information trans-
action without problems of data tampering (Tian, 2016).
Implementing Blockchain will change the entire business process.
It provides end to end visibility of the supply chain, enhances
traceability, agility and meets customer demands efficiently
(Galvin, 2017). It enables the users to verify how the product that
they intend to use is assembled. Thus, restricting the market for
counterfeit and illegal products (Apte and Petrovsky, 2016).
“The potential value of the index of food quality as a nutrition
education tool for the public will be realized only when food pro-
files are readily available.” Food quality index helps in visualizing
their dietary needs and deficiencies to people (Sorenson and
Hansen, 1975). Measuring perceived quality for food products
is complex, as it requires sufficiently validated scales. There can
be varying trade-offs for quality perceptions for intrinsic and
extrinsic product features. Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors
needed to be considered separately for finding quality (Llor et al.,
2004). Food quality has two facets i.e. it can be considered as the
most well defined or least well-defined concept in the food in-
dustry. None of the measures like microbiological, nutritional,
or physiochemical characteristics serve adequate indices for
food quality as food is a consumer based evaluative/perceptual
construct specific to a person, time and place. ‘Consumer
acceptability’ is the measurement that comes closest to an
adequate index (Cardello, 1995). Sensory quality is the major factor
determining consumer acceptance for food products. Freshness
critical industries like the fish industry, have become aware of
indices with unified criteria for biochemical, physiochemical and
sensory assessment during various phases (Huidobro A, Pastor A,
2000).
2.4. Challenges today in restaurants food quality
The challenges today for the restaurant industry is to provide
customers with high-quality food to have a superior business
advantage. Fresh and tasty food is essential to drive out competitors
(Jang, 2007a). The fundamental way to satisfy consumers for a
restaurant is food quality. Food has a major impact on return
patronage and customer satisfaction. Restaurant managers must
understand the importance of high-quality food and customer
satisfaction as it directly impacts on customer revisits (Jang,
2007b). Quality is subjective in nature mostly, taste and presenta-
tion of food have more importance for consumers than freshness,
healthy options and temperature (Namkung and Jang, 2000). The
critical and fundamental factors for restaurants are service quality
and food quality. Lack of established index for food quality
METHOD USED
Barcode based
Firm specific
RFID based
RFID based
TTIa based
RFID based
RFID based
AIDC, Sensors, DNA, GPS, etc.
Electronic data capturing and data mining tools
RFID, Blockchain based
AIDCb based
4 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021

Table 2
Shelf life of pork.

PORK TYPE Open shelf life Before cooking After Cooking

<90- Wt >90- Wt Refrigerator (40- Wt Freezer Shelf life (0- Wt Refrigerator (40- Wt Freezer Shelf life (0- Wt
degree degree degree F or below) degree F or below) degree F or below) degree F or below)
F F

Fresh pork <2 0.4 <1 0.4 <12 0.4 <1440 0.4 <24 0.4 <720 0.4
2e4 0.3 1e2 0.3 12e24 0.3 1440e2880 0.3 24e48 0.3 720e1440 0.3
4e5 0.2 2e3 0.2 24e36 0.2 2880e3600 0.2 48e72 0.2 1440e2160 0.2
5e6 0.06 3e4 0.06 36e48 0.06 3600e4320 0.06 72e96 0.06 2160e2880 0.06
>6 0.04 >4 0.04 >48 0.04 >4320 0.04 >96 0.04 >2880 0.04

Cured Pork: Bacon <2 0.4 <1 0.4 <96 0.4 <360 0.6 <96 0.4 <4320 0.6
2e4 0.3 1e2 0.3 96e120 0.3 96e144 0.3
4e5 0.2 2e3 0.2 120e144 0.2 360e720 0.3 144e192 0.2 4320e5040 0.3
5e6 0.06 3e4 0.06 144e168 0.06 720e1080 0.06 192e240 0.06 5040e5760 0.06
>6 0.04 >4 0.04 >168 0.04 >1080 0.04 >240 0.04 >5760 0.04

Cured Pork: Ham <2 0.4 <1 0.4 <48 0.4 <720 0.6 <72 0.4 <720 0.6
(whole, half, slices) 2e4 0.3 1e2 0.3 48e72 0.3 72e120 0.3
4e5 0.2 2e3 0.2 72e96 0.2 720e1440 0.3 120e144 0.2 720e1440 0.3
5e6 0.06 3e4 0.06 96e120 0.06 1440e1800 0.06 144e168 0.06 1440e1800 0.06
>6 0.04 >4 0.04 >120 0.04 >1800 0.04 >168 0.04 >1800 0.04

Raw Pork Sausage <2 0.4 <1 0.4 <24 0.6 <720 0.6 <72 0.4 <4320 0.6
2e4 0.3 1e2 0.3 72e120 0.3
4e5 0.2 2e3 0.2 24e48 0.3 720e1440 0.3 120e144 0.2 4320e5040 0.3
5e6 0.06 3e4 0.06 48e72 0.06 1440e1800 0.06 144e168 0.06 5040e5760 0.06
>6 0.04 >4 0.04 >72 0.04 >1800 0.04 >168 0.04 >5760 0.04

Source: Literature and Online as discussed in references section.

traceability is a concern and various researches are quite significant
in the domain to develop a methodology which would comply with
established regulations and statutory guidelines. There are other
interacting factors, viz. ambience of a restaurant, which also has an
impact on customer satisfaction in restaurants (Ha and Jang, 2010).
3. Methodology
3.1. Problem statement
“An absence of efficient food quality traceability systems and reli-
able food quality index availability for restaurants is hindering
them in achieving their value chain goals and also demand
reduction due to indirect storage or handling problems caused due
to third parties.”
An efficient long term, low cost infrastructure is thus required
for these restaurants for enhancing their sustainability in their
services and adding more value to their customers. There are a
number of methods followed in various supply chains for trace-
ability measures, but there are less methods of quantifying quality
and ensuring the quality of final product. Hence, it is required to
have a good traceability infrastructure, providing convienient
quality information in quantified way to customers which ensures
customer loyalty and creates more demand under conditions. The
infrastructure should be cost efficient such that it is flexible enough
to scale up on varying future requirements of the customers. The
future of restaurant food service may demand other features like
authenticity of the product or any other information regarding
producer, etc. The solution thus needed to address this scaling up
problems too, such that cost is lower over a long term. A stan-
dardized food supply chain is also required for solving the problem.

To propose a restaurant's food quality traceability prototype
using blockchain model to measure the food quality index on
scaled measurements.
3.3. Research methodology
The research is undertaken considering, the gaps identified
based on the literature evidence from the reputed journals. Various
existing models were studied, which used technological imple-
mentations in order to arrive at the specific model for food quality
traceability and its information sharing with stakeholders across
the supply chain. Detailed exploration was carried out to identify
the variables which would provide a baseline for the measurement
of food quality in the restaurants. In reference to identification of
variables, consultation was carried out with various hotel man-
agement organisations, experts in the restaurant industry, and food
technology experts in the city of Bangalore. The comparison was
carried out to understand the ease of use of technicalities,
authenticity of information, avoid the tampering and other risk
associated with data handling.
Blockchain model is found to be more advantageous in terms of
scaling, reliability, dependability and long-term cost effectiveness.
A model was developed on data flow using the model across
various stakeholders involved in the restaurants supply chain.
Mathematical modelling is devised for the calculation of the food
quality index considering the storage time as the selected quality
parameter. The boundary values of the storage conditions param-
eters are taken for the calculation of the food quality index.
4. Blockchain model for food quality traceability of pork
meat served in restaurants

3.2. Research objective 4.1. Proposed model

To understand the various methods of data capture and trace- The model captures data from various nodes or stakeholders,
ability methods used in food supply chain. processes them within the blockchain and evaluates whether the
 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021
food is in the consumable index range. The prototype explained
here is for varieties of pork. There are a number of parameters
confronting to food quality as fertilizers applied, product genetics,
nutritional content, storage temperature, humidity, storage area
quality, etc. The three major quality parameters for pork can be
Refrigeration/storage time, product shelf life and nutritional
value; out of which prototype explains parameter considered
for shelf life. The model can be customized to meet various other
necessities for food safety issues. As an example, the type of data
that need to be captured might vary from product to product,
environment, handling methods, etc. The compliance by regulatory
authorities too can be addressed by customizing this model easily
compared to any other discussed models. The proposed model can
be explained in four stages:
4.1.1. STAGE 1: Data capturing from various nodes in supply chain
Data is captured using blockchain from various stakeholders
involved in the value chain, either through sensors or manually
entered by stakeholders like farmers. The farmers or producers can
connect to the system via mobile applications. Pictures of produc-
tion or farming captured can be stored in a mobile app. A hash is
generated and published in a blockchain. Producer authenticity
certificates issued by any trusted agency can also be added to the
block and can be verified to ensure product authenticity. The
inspector can verify photograph and authenticity certificates cor-
responds to the original reporting in the blockchain. Other data
including Producer ID and Date of Production, are also hashed and
stored in the blockchain. There can be many intermediaries in the
supply chain depending on its type. The pork supply chain
considered here has a butcher and distributor who are identified by
their unique id. Each of these intermediaries, on receiving and
delivering the product, adds corresponding dates to the blockchain.
Any mismatch on the product quantities or receiving or delivery
dates can be traced back in the supply chain. A particular package or
product can be traced back to its producer by using unique iden-
tifiers like barcode, RFID transmitter or QR code. Regular trans-
action data and other complex data types like temperature
measure, humidity measure, nutritional specifications, etc., can be
easily tagged on to products using blockchain (Blockchain use cases
for food traceability and control, 2017). These data can be combined
along with the cooking time data in the restaurant to create a
unique Food Quality Value for the products.
A ledger type of non-permissioned public ledger, that has no
single owner, or a permissioned single ledger were participants are
preselected can be implemented based on implementing organi-
sation's requirement and capacity. A public permissioned ledger is
the most appropriate for consumers to access across. A Bitcoin type
blockchain is not suitable for supply chain as time is a critical factor.
The companies or suppliers' part of blockchain should be agreed
upon a common blockchain. (Jeppsson and Olsson, 2017).
Table 3
Percentage distribution of weights for shelf lives.
% Shelf Life <20% 20e40% 40e60% 60e80%
Weight 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.06
Table 4
Weightage distribution for open shelf life of pork under 90F.
OPSLL90F 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
wt 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3
5
4.1.2. STAGE 2: Gathering and standardizing index boundary values
Index is specific for products. It is created using the standards of
handling prescribed by regulatory authorities. Four major types of
pork are being considered that includes viz. fresh pork, bacon, ham
and raw pork sausage. The shelf lives before cooking and after
cooking are gathered from US standard of FDA studies. Shelf lives
vary according to their storage temperature. All shelf lives are
converted into standard hours and weightages are given as highest
weightage for the least number of days of storage and lowest
weightage to higher number of storage days with total weightage
for a product is 1.
The model is generalized to fit any type of food product once the
shelf life of the product is identified. The total shelf life percentage
is split, and weights are assigned for any product based on ap-
proximations on the below percentages. For the shelf life in total
number of days, any number of days less than 20 percentage of total
days is assigned a weightage of 0.4 and other weightages are
assigned as per Table 3(see Table 4).
4.1.3. STAGE 3: Curve estimation to identify correlation between
shelf life and weightage
Curve estimation needed to be done in order to identify the
correlation between the shelf life and the weightages assigned.
Curve estimation for fresh pork has been carried out as follows. The
table shows the weightage distribution for Open shelf life of fresh
pork under 90 Fahrenheit.
Curve fit estimation for OPSLL90F carried out using SPSS and
outputs are shown in Fig. 2 and Table 5(see Table 6).
From the output, cubic model is found to be the best explain the
best dependency between weights and Open Shelf life less than 90F
atmospheric temperature for fresh pork. The general formula for a
cubic expression is given as:
y ¼ b0þb1t þ b2t2þb3t3
Hence the equation explaining relation between Weightage and
shelf life can be derived from the parameter estimates of the model
summary as:
Wt ¼ 0.352 þ 0.073D-0.042D2þ0.004D3
In the same approach, the equations for the other conditions are
also generated. The other equations are as follows:
4.1.4. STAGE 4: Creating index using boundary values
Final Index for food quality is created by applying minimum and
maximum values to the derived curve fit correlations. This gives the
range of values in which the food is consumable. Here the index
values of fresh pork are depicted in Fig. 3.
On capturing the data regarding the product storage time from
blockchain, an algorithm can be used to find the quality value of the
product based on the equations derived. The derived quality value
should be within the food quality index. If value is out of the
boundary, it means the food is not safe to consume as it doesn't
80e100%
follow the standards of storage and handling. The algorithm in the
designed blockchain system will figure out this. This will ensure
0.04
that the customer will have safe food.
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5
0.3 0.2 0.2 0.06 0.06 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04
6 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021

4.2. Discussion on the model

Fig. 1. Blockchain implementation model for restaurant.
The major challenge in the food industry is that there are large
number of food products. Therefore, in practicality in order to
develop one specific model to address the concerns of food quality
traceability is difficult. However, the model considers the shelf life
of the product as defined as per regulatory bodies of the food in-
dustry. This model is an iterative model and it may change for other
food products. The proof of concept is considered for different types
of pork meat only. However, following the four stages discussed
earlier may be applied for other food products to derive the food
quality index using the Blockchain infrastructure. The challenge to
devise one global approach to food quality traceability index is also
addressed in the proposed proof of concept. The risk associated
other than storage conditions, such as the use of fertilizers by
farmers in the harvest stage for crops, product genetics and nutri-
tional value etc. are not addressed in the model and this may be the
limitations of the model.

5. Future scope

The advancements ongoing in Blockchain will add more value to

the business and supply chain. A project by IBM and Walmart
implementing blockchain in the food supply chain for pork in China
and Mango in the US had got great attention. The partnership is
working for further market explorations. There is a clear indication
of organisations adopting technological advancements to have
highly competitive supply chain were blockchain contribution is
vital. The explained prototype can itself be modified to have further
addition of data points or nodes to enhance customer value addi-
tion. The model can be customized to provide the customer, the
stories of the farmer, the producer, the type or method of cultiva-
tion followed. Also providing details regarding the soil fertility,
added fertilizers, genetic details of the product, and weather con-
ditions during cultivations, etc. are future possibilities. Though
Blockchain's reliability, security and economic feasibility is a great
advantage for implementation, the required standardisation of
processes and data, provisions for further addition of blocks needed
to be efficiently designed. The risk factors needed to be identified
and addressed carefully though the risk is comparatively less for
blockchain. The concepts of mining in Blockchain can also be
Fig. 2. Curve fit estimation for OPSLL90F.
further developed for enhanced utility.

Table 5
Curve fit estimation model summary for OPSLL90F.

Model Summary and Parameter Estimates

Dependent Variable: wt

Equation Model Summary Parameter Estimates

R Square F df1 df2 Sig. Constant b1 b2 b3

Linear .914 127.198 1 12 .000 .466 -.065

Logarithmic .873 82.399 1 12 .000 .473 -.216
Inverse .690 26.738 1 12 .000 .033 .478
Quadratic .922 65.403 2 11 .000 .516 -.095 .004
Cubic .949 62.378 3 10 .000 .352 .073 -.042 .004
Compound .890 96.774 1 12 .000 .860 .643
Power .763 38.546 1 12 .000 .811 1.398
S .533 13.712 1 12 .003 2.989 2.905
Growth .890 96.774 1 12 .000 -.151 -.441
Exponential .890 96.774 1 12 .000 .860 -.441
Logistic .890 96.774 1 12 .000 1.163 1.555

The independent variable is OSLL90.

 R.V. George et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 240 (2019) 118021
Table 6
Curve fit estimation model summary for OPSLL90F.
OPSLL90F (Open Shelf life of fresh pork stored under 90F)
OPSLG90F (Open Shelf life of fresh pork stored above 90F)
RSLBC (Refrigerated Shelf life of fresh pork before cooking)
FSLBC (Freezer Shelf life of fresh pork before cooking)
RSLAC (Refrigerated Shelf life of fresh pork after cooking)
FSLAC (Freezer Shelf life of fresh pork after cooking)
Fig. 3. Food Quality Index for fresh pork.
6. Conclusion
Considering the discussed model, the results indicate that
storage conditions of pork meat are the major element for its
quality indicator. The open shelf life for fresh pork stored under 90-
degree F (OPSLL90F) should have a quality index in the range of
0.25e0.38. The open shelf life of fresh pork stored above 90-degree
F (OPSLG90F) should have a quality index in the range of 0.55e0.75.
The refrigerated shelf life of fresh pork before cooking (RSLBC)
should have a quality index in the range of 0.54e0.75. The freezer
shelf life of fresh pork before cooking (FSLBC) should have a quality
index in the range of 0.41e0.43. The refrigerated shelf life of fresh
pork after cooking (RSLAC) should have a quality index in the range
of 0.33e0.4. The freezer shelf life of fresh pork after cooking (FSLAC)
should have a quality index in the range of 0.3e0.37. The result here
provides the clear quality index range of the fresh pork.
There are number of methods to implement traceability for the
safety of products and their supply chain management. Every
organisation adapts to technologies where there is a maximum
value addition for their supply chain. Safety and Quality of food are
the major considerations of stakeholders of food production or
restaurant firm. Food safety can be enhanced via traceability with
blockchain solutions. Blockchain can be used to tap information
from each node of the supply chain. These data are more reliable
and tamper-proof due to the features of the blockchain. The data
captured from these nodes can be articulated efficiently to ensure
food quality. The proposed prototype captures storage time data
during the various stages of food storage. An index is developed
using standard storage time data provided by regulatory author-
ities, weights are allocated to the divided total number of days. The
curve fit of these weights and shelf life in days are derived to find
the best-fit equation. This equation helps in deriving the limits
between which the food quality value should fall at each stage of
handling. This method of quantifying quality helps restaurants to
address consumers more reliably. The prototype can be further
developed, in a similar way to address a variety of data needs to
address quality concerns. The index can be developed furthermore
to cover a large variety of products and quantify their quality.
7
Wt ¼ 0.352 þ 0.073D1-0.042D21þ0.004D31
Wt ¼ 0.449 þ 0.110D1-0.011D21þ0.003D31
Wt ¼ 0.449 þ 0.009D2-0.000079D22þ 0.000002D32
Wt ¼ 0.409 þ 0.000004D2
Wt ¼ 0.417e0.002D3-0.000076 D23þ 0.000001 D33
Wt ¼ 0.417e0.000062 D3
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