Hamburger with Blockchain: “You can no longer hide information”

Recently start-up The New Fork in Amsterdam launched a blockchain citizen. With this burger you can see exactly where your meat, lettuce and bread come from. Blockchain and open chain should contribute to knowing where your food comes from, what its nutritional value is and whether it is good food safety.

Get a lot of salmon: The idea is to put everything fishing related on a blockchain. Blockchain is a system in which it is possible to enter information that you can no longer set, but also to make payments without an intermediary (as in bitcoin). Where does the fish come from? How much did the fisherman charge for it? At what temperature was the salmon transported? What were the CO2 emissions? Anyone can view and verify information.

With the new blockchain citizen you can see that the grain comes from the Noordoostpolder and that the cow does not take antibiotics. Something else that you can already discover is orange juice from Albert Heijn and coconut from Verstegen. You can especially see how the trade route went through there.

According to Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt, founder of The New Fork, blockchain can help prevent food fraud and improve security in addition to product tracking. There are many European regulations that guarantee good and safe products.

“But there is also a lot of fraud,” says De Ruyter de Wildt. “Oil without olive oil. Cardboard fiber bread. You cannot delete the blockchain, so it is public. And think of the food scandals: Sesame and Salmonella contaminations at the Ferrero chocolate factory. if you register it properly in the chain, you discover the problem faster and you don’t have to throw everything away, you only have to throw away the really contaminated batch.”

The ultimate goal is for everything about your food to become public, she says. “Look at the number of pesticides on a crop. Now Europe determines what is allowed, then you can see for yourself which broker is there.”

A label does not tell everything about a product. For some products it is better to watch the entire channel.

Blockchain is especially useful for experts

But should a consumer check and evaluate it? “Well, it is possible, but that is not the only intention,” says De Ruyter de Wildt. “It is especially helpful for experts, NGOs and journalists to review data faster to verify it. Then you know that more people go to the supermarket than the company itself.”

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) also monitors our food. When asked whether the regulator is involved in the blockchain, “it is up to the business itself to determine which techniques they use. He has to make sure the food is correct first.”

“Not all problems have a magical solution”

Margo Potma, expert in sustainable and innovative food chains, denounces blockchain. He conducted research into blockchain in the cocoa industry. “I don’t think that’s always the answer. This is a direct and fair trade and requires proper consultation.”

Dutch Blockchain Coalition project manager Koen Lukas Hartog knows a lot about companies that use blockchain. “The biggest advantage is that you can’t set invisible information that can be hidden or changed later. You know people are watching. That is the added value.”

According to Hartog, blockchains can be useful for transactions for which there is no good or reliable intermediary. “I can imagine there are such cases in the food industry.”

“An expensive system is positive and sad”

In addition to selling hamburgers, The New Fork also negotiates with various sectors such as the soy industry, for which Ahold Delhaize sits at his desk every week. “I am confident that blockchain will completely change the food industry,” says De Ruyter de Wildt.

“It’s quite sad that a complex and sometimes expensive system is needed to get people around a table,” says Potma. “But on the other hand, it’s also positive if it causes changes.”