Our Views on How Blockchain is Transforming Global Supply Chains...and read our latest one-sider!

 

Authenticity! Authenticity! Authenticity!...the critical mantra for

Supply Chain Transformation in 2023/24

 

Why proving product authenticity from the start of the supply chain is mission critical...

 

As a raft of new technologies emerge to establish provenance and maintain product visibility throughout the supply chain, we show that the critical start point for supply chain management is a focus on authenticity.  In short, establishing product authenticity at the source of production, enabled by technology, allows all parties across the value chain to have visibility and a tamperproof record of a “trusted” product. 

 

Once this layer of trust is created, this provides the foundation for driving efficiencies by stripping away expensive compliance regimes and the need for complex on-site inspections, audits, and record reconciliation.

 

Simply put, new technology is the enabler of track and trace via its ability to create an immutable product record but unless time and effort is spent up-front on authenticating the product at source, what the supply chain is effectively perpetuating is simply a pale version of the truth.

 

Unpacking Product Authentication Factors 

 

The process of authentication starts by unpacking the factors, layers and data points that establish each product’s unique identity; a practice we are all familiar with when logging into a website to confirm our own personal identity.  It starts with us providing a user name and password and then dependent on the service being accessed, a process of multi-factor authentication kicks in which might include a time-based one-time password or SMS text message with a code.

 

Work undertaken in the US and UK on Meat Supply Chains by Criterium and its partners puts this into further context for the authentication of, for example, beef and beef protein.  At a macro level, multiple factors were central to establishing product provenance, namely location, the animal’s DNA, a hoofprint which were layered  into individual authentication factors:-

 

• Location:  the GPS location of the animal 

• Animal  : The cattle’s DNA  "hoofprint"

• Regulatory data points eg Farm location and ID 

 

Authentication can follow a staged process, that is to say, you start simply with factors within the business today, and then over time look to overlay additional properties that uniquely identify the product and cannot be falsified. For example in the case of beef, facial recognition of cattle and other enhanced profiling techniques can be utilised as they become available.