Know what you’re buying – how blockchain will change the personal nutrition and food supplements business?
There are several key ways how blockchain will change the future of personal nutrition, but today we’ll focus on one thing in particular: the validity of the ingredients and products. In other terms – how can blockchain help us make sure that we’re buying what’s advertised?
What are the main problems that need solving?
The problem is that increased interest in personal nutrition has lead to rapid growth in nutritional supplements. But the broader industry has a history of ups and downs due to contamination, use of fillers and poor quality in general.
Supply chain systems that rely on paper tracking don’t provide a way to share data with the end consumers.
It’s essential to share authentic information from every step of the supply chain to ensure the supplements are safe to consume. But it also helps brands strengthen their image and integrity to achieve ultimate customer loyalty.
How blockchain helps
Blockchain helps validate all suppliers, sellers and distributors because, as we know, all “blocks” are time-stamped, approved and can’t be changed.
Read more about the blockchain and its implementations here
Blockchain solutions available on the market today help companies store information for easy traceability and view transactions in real-time. There was a highly publicized experiment in the USA, where Walmart was able to identify the farm and farmer of a mango sold in 2.2 seconds using blockchain. While it is not an industry standard, it shows the potential capability of blockchain implementation to shorten processes that previously took weeks down to minutes or even seconds (depending on the amount of data and system architecture).
Strengthen your brand and image using blockchain
Natural food supplement producers go above and beyond to offer high-quality products that are also sustainably sourced. This means that considerable time and effort is put into the supply chain to make the process more transparent and avoid quality issues. In a trust-based business, visibility is key to building strong customer relationships.
Blockchain holds power to give the consumer more information about the product than ever before. For example, the ingredients are not only words on the bottle. Imagine if you knew exactly that the chlorella powder you use is 100% pure. But you also knew which part of the world it came from, and the people involved in making it were paid fairly while the whole supply chain was following fair trade practices?
Blockchain technology can validate these claims, which are virtually impossible for the customer to track by themselves. It gives the promises of brands a whole new meaning because every word can be traced and approved.
Where are we standing today?
Is blockchain the answer the industry has been waiting for to make the supply chain more transparent? It can be, but its implementation is still a work In progress, and it will take considerable time before it will be the industry standard.
The technology alone won’t cut it; blockchain also needs the backing of data, which means that stronger supply chain systems need to be in place to use all the advantages of blockchain. But for companies who are looking forward and want to make global supply chain transparency a reality have already begun the journey to enhance their operations, eliminate frauds and build stronger trust-based relationships with their consumers.
