Use case - Food Industry

U.S.A. Spinach E. coli Outbreak (2006)

● One of the biggest E. coli bacteria outbreaks in recent years

● Caused at least 276 consumer illnesses and 3 deaths across the country

● An estimated $74 million loss to the farmers

● Took several weeks to identify the source of the

contamination

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 Chipotle E. coli Outbreak (2015)
● In November 2015, after eating at Chipotle, 60 people were infected by the foodborne illness in 11
states, of which 22 were hospitalized

● As a result, the stock price fell from $730 to around $400 in the aftermath

● The restaurant chain is still reeling from the effects of the contamination that occured 4 years ago

● Huge reputational risk, that is tough to

overcome

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 Need for Food Supply Chain Provenance
● Food borne illnesses due to contaminated food affect about 700 million people every year which is
10% of the world’s population.

● About 60 million eventually die because of these illnesses.

● As a result, an estimated $90 billion is wasted in economic productivity in the U. S. alone.

● Affected companies spend millions of dollars on recalls and take permanent hints on their
reputations.

● Provenance - a record of ownership of a thing, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.

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 Traditional Food Supply Chain

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 Blockchain Food Supply Chain

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 Blockchains in Food Supply Chain
The main stakeholders in the food supply chain are the food producers, distributors, processors and the
consumers who would all benefit from a shared industry-wide logistics platform with:

● Onboarding Management

● Shared Information Archive

● Real Time Tracking of Food Products

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 Blockchains in Food Supply Chain
By sharing the information between all of the stakeholders in the model, end users like consumer and
retailers get:
● End-to-end visibility over the supplier relationship

● Real-time access to monitor all supplier relationships

● Ability to share reviews of the food product for the benefit of other users

● Ability to make better sourcing and purchasing decisions which in turn reduces the risk of
reputational damage as there is more visibility of the overall chain

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