Blockchain Network for the Norwegian Food Industry

Background Increased traceability in the food supply chain will increasingly have a positive impact on society in terms of food safety, food authenticity, sustainability and consumer trust. Blockchain based systems applied to food supply chains provide new possibilities to achieve this goal by providing more interoperability and data sharing regarding food production and thus a better overview for authorities and end-consumers. In addition, blockchain technology inherently prevents tampering with recorded data, and provides a link to the identity of the person who recorded the data. Goals accomplished BlockMatNet established a network for users, solution providers, and researchers working with blockchain solutions for / in the Norwegian food industry and created the website https://blockmatnet.com/ where links to news stories relevant for the users are automatically generated. BlockMatNet hosted one physical and numerous online workshops and meetings for the network and for the project participants. Several national and international presentations of the project and of the underlying technology were held. Partly based on the activity and the experiences in BlockMatNet two EU proposals addressing potential applications of blockchain technology were submitted. Nofima is WP-leader in both, and they were both funded (Horizon Europe projects #101156426 VeriFish og #101180529 EFF-CoP).

Outcomes: - Established a network for users, solution providers, and researchers working with blockchain solutions for / in the Norwegian food industry and facilitated exchange of knowledge, access to relevant information, and improved competence in the network. - Established the dynamic website https://blockmatnet.com/ with links to relevant news stories, articles, reports, conferences, and initiatives. A set of initial keywords (“blockchain”, “food”, etc.) were established to generate potentially relevant news stories. Manual classification (“relevant” / “not relevant”) was carried out on hundreds of news stories to train the algorithm into recognizing relevant news stories; initially this was only about 50% of the candidate news items. When the algorithm was deemed good enough (>92%) the manual classification ended and the news stories were fed directly to the database underlying the website. - BlockMatNet hosted one physical and numerous online workshops and meetings for the network and for the project participants. - Several national and international presentations of the project and of the underlying technology were held. Impacts after project end: - The network exists, contacts have been established, and barriers for future collaboration have been reduced. - The Horizon Europe project #101156426 “The sustainability indicator framework to communicate responsible aquafood production and consumption patterns” (VeriFish) was applied for and funded; start date May 1st 2024. The goal is to get verifiable seafood product attributes to the consumer, and one aspect of verification if the attributes in question are recorded in an immutable database, e.g. a blockchain database. Nofima is a WP-leader in VeriFish, partly based on the network and knowledge developed in BlockMatNet. - The Horizon Europe project #101180529 “European Food Fraud Community of Practice: From Outset to Operation” (EFF-CoP) was applied for and funded; start date January 1st 2025. The goal is to establish and mobilise a European Food Fraud Community of Practice (EFF-CoP) network of scientists, regulators, and large and small-sized industry actors including in particular the organic sector. The transparency, interoperability, and immutability of blockchain-based traceability system is an important aspect of this, and can help combat and detect food fraud. Nofima is a WP-leader in EFF-CoP, partly based on the network and knowledge developed in BlockMatNet.

BlockMatNet will create a network of Norwegian stakeholders involved and interested in the use of blockchain technology in the food industry. This is a rapidly expanding research and innovation area, with many Norwegian organizations, industry actors, solution providers, and research partners working in this field, but there is currently no common forum where they can meet, discuss, and exchange views and practices. BlockMatNet will alleviate this situation by establishing a network with at least 30 members, by producing newsletters, by setting up a dynamic website with a discussion forum and links to relevant news stories, articles, reports, conferences, and initiatives, and by hosting at least two plenary network meetings. BlockMatNet has been designed to interact with EU-China-Safe, an ongoing H2020 project and DisruptAqua, an ongoing NPA project. These projects contain outreach activities designed to both disseminate and communicate research output to interested parties, and activities designed to elicit preferences and requirements from stakeholders to inform the planned research, innovation, and standardization activities. BlockMatNet will ensure that Norwegian blockchain organizations are in a position to utilize the outputs from these projects, and also that the views and preferences of Norwegian stakeholders are taken into consideration in the upcoming research and standardization activities. Upcoming European research work programmes (Horizon Europe in particular) indicate numerous funding opportunities for blockchain related research; in particular the HORIZON-CL6-2021-FARM2FORK-01-07 call “Research & innovation roadmap for blockchain technologies in the agri-food sector”. BlockMatNet will engage and inform relevant Norwegian organizations about these calls and ensure significant Norwegian participation in future European calls and projects in this area.