Tracking oysters with blockchain

Blockchain is being used to keep track of organic oysters, protecting them and their buyers from fraud and theft. Developed by Security Matters (SMX), the tracking technique involves connecting the physical and digital worlds in order to allow for a form of provenance and digital genealogy to be established.

The method is fairly simple: the organic oysters are marked with an invisible, food-grade marker during the cleaning and processing stage that identifies their geographical origin. The marking is then linked to the blockchain, which allows the physical oyster to be tracked. Since the blockchain is hosted externally and has been developed to minimise fraud, the service makes it possible to have a long-term digital receipt of where an oyster was bought or sold and by whom.

The food-grade marker can be applied to a live oyster and is able to be read through plastic liner packaging. The marking system is not affected by refrigerated environments, logistics and transport conditions and procedures that are typical to the industry and sustained through the shelf life of the oysters.

The benefits of this system are twofold: firstly, the provenance of the oyster can be easily kept track of, as it moves between producers and sellers. This means that theft and fraud of the oysters can ideally be minimised, with buyers knowing where the products are coming from and if the seller is acting legally.

The second benefit of the system is that it allows buyers to understand the source of the oysters and check on their sustainability practices.

“SMX is excited to have successfully developed a food-grade marker system for oysters,” said Security Matters founder and CEO Haggai Alon.

“This is the first of several large superfood markets where our technology can be applied to provide all value chain players with the ability to meet the consumers and stakeholders’ expectations on the origination of their products and sustainability, whilst also increasing the marketability of products, which has the potential to increase sales.”

The technology was tested in a laboratory environment and Security Matters is currently negotiating with commercial suppliers to adopt the technology, with the launch of the oyster-blockchain service expected by the end of Q1 2022.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/olyjo