A 20-year analysis of food fraud reported that counterfeiting accounted for 43% of identified fraud within the global beef industry. Of all supply chain segments, primary processing was the most vulnerable area for fraud, accounting for 36% of all reports.
With global demand for protein skyrocketing, counterfeiting in high-value products will continue to expose the entire industry to significant risk, including recalls, liability for related illnesses, massive economic losses, losses in sales, and most importantly, loss of consumer trust.
The Australian Meat Processor Corporation (AMPC), determined to tackle this problem head-on to support its red meat processors, hired Unova to develop a cost-effective and robust primal to steak, and steak to primal, traceability and anti-counterfeit system, built on Unova’s blockchain infrastructure.
Due to COVID-related travel restrictions, Unova set-up a demonstration for how a third-party cutting room would register inbound primal to improve traceability and fraud-detection. Unova merged its native blockchain network with software infrastructure and the necessary hardware to create unique digital identities that could be easily tracked and analyzed.
The counterfeit flagging module notifies companies which steaks have a high probability of being counterfeit, enabling further investigations from companies, and trust to end consumers. UNOVA’s consumer trace dashboard allows consumers to scan a QR-code/barcode on a physical product and get access to its full traceability and transparency data. This enables consumers to view, rate, comment, share, or store products and view all members in the ecosystem.
Upon completion of the pilot, AMPC agreed that implementing the complete solution in a real-world supply chain, with all anti-counterfeiting measures in place, could not only benefit industry traceability objectives, but could also result in less anti-counterfeiting activities due to the difficulty of attempting, and the high risk of getting caught by both the supplier and the end consumer.
Blockchain is the ideal solution for supply chains because decentralized data is safe data that is immutable, accessible, and traceable. Per the principles of Web3, blockchain networks aren’t controlled by any central authority, and are instead spread out amongst individual nodes that host their own applications to form a network. Once the data is created on the enterprise node, it will be bundled and distributed through a blockchain transaction to the other relevant enterprise nodes.
For those new to blockchain, this process likely sounds intimidating. Yet Unova has been designed for extremely easy set-up: all applications are set-up in one simple command line. After signing up, each company can login to their company profile where they are (among other things) shown how to create their wallet, install their node, invite facilities, invite users, use the chain builder tool to build their internal chain, decide settings and define who will get access to the digitalized assets registered on the network. The system can be run through Unova-created applications, or infused with companies’ current ERP systems.
As food and mouth disease looms threateningly over the Australian beef industry, it’s now more important than ever that Australian producers and processors are able to communicate the highest levels of biosecurity and animal welfare to their consumers.
Yet this pilot only shows a tiny fraction of what Unova can do, when fully implemented. With the right innovative company, the possibilities are infinite:
– Enable consumer transparency by rolling out Unova’s trace app at the retailer level, allowing consumers to trust and understand each products journey.
– Better manage your inventory to reduce waste and the bullwhip effect.
– Get greater traceability insights and understand how data and products flow through your system.
– Improve recall processes to reduce waste and improve consumer trust.
– Automate purchase ordering for inventory based on real-time demand data.
Unova isn’t just for meat companies either: imagine full visibility from the beginning to the end of your supply chain, from the grain fed to your cows, to the trucks that bring your products to your consumers. Unova is a backbone of potential data solutions for any company working within supply chains: blockchain to solve real world problems.
If you’re interested in taking this pilot onto a real-life industry setting, please reach out to Unova at info@unova.io.