Emerging Perspectives of Blockchains in Food Supply Chain Traceability Based on Patent Analysis

In the field of blockchain (BC) technology application in the food supply chain (FSC), a patent portfolio is collected, described, and analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling, with the aim of obtaining insight into technology trends in this emerging and promising field. A patent portfolio consisting of 82 documents was extracted from patent databases using PatSnap software. The analysis of latent topics using LDA indicates that inventions related to the application of BCs in FSCs are patented in four key areas: (A) BC-supported tracing and tracking in FSCs; (B) devices and methods supporting application of BCs in FSCs; (C) combining BCs and other ICT technologies in FSC; and (D) BC-supported trading in FSCs. Patenting of BC technology applications in FSCs started during the second decade of the 21st century. Consequently, patent forward citation has been relatively low, while the family size confirms that application of BCs in FSCs is not yet widely accepted. A significant increase in the number of patent applications was registered after 2019, indicating that the number of potential users in FSCs is expected to grow over time. The largest numbers of patents originate from China, India, and the US.

[1]  M. Massaro,et al.  Blockchain technologies for sustainability in the agrifood sector: A literature review of academic research and business perspectives , 2023, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

[2]  T. Daim,et al.  Monitoring the development trend and competition status of high technologies using patent analysis and bibliographic coupling: The case of electronic design automation technology , 2022, Technology in Society.

[3]  T. Frikha,et al.  Agricultural Lightweight Embedded Blockchain System: A Case Study in Olive Oil , 2022, Electronics.

[4]  S. Stankovski,et al.  Blockchain Framework for Certification of Organic Agriculture Production , 2022, Sustainability.

[5]  Abhirup Khanna,et al.  Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chain platform for Indian Dairy Industry: Safety and Traceability , 2022, Foods.

[6]  Lucas Lima de Oliveira,et al.  The stakeholder's roles in risk management related to food supply chain recalls: a systematic literature review , 2022, The International Journal of Logistics Management.

[7]  C. Y. Rubavathi,et al.  A survey on Blockchain mechanisms (BCM) based on internet of things (IoT) applications , 2022, Multimedia Tools and Applications.

[8]  N. Ramaiah,et al.  A survey on traceability in food safety system using blockchain , 2022, Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography.

[9]  O. Terzo,et al.  Traceability Platform Based on Green Blockchain: An Application Case Study in Dairy Supply Chain , 2022, Sustainability.

[10]  Jing Li,et al.  A survey of application research based on blockchain smart contract , 2022, Wireless Networks.

[11]  Sotiris P. Gayialis,et al.  A Predictive Maintenance System for Reverse Supply Chain Operations , 2022, Logistics.

[12]  Nima Jafari Navimipour,et al.  An in-depth and systematic literature review on the blockchain-based approaches for cloud computing , 2021, Clust. Comput..

[13]  Operations and Supply Chain Management in the Food Industry , 2022, Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering.

[14]  Anshu Parashar,et al.  A Systematic Literature Review of Blockchain Technology for Smart Villages , 2021, Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering.

[15]  Suyuan Luo,et al.  Innovative platform operations with the use of technologies in the blockchain era , 2021, Int. J. Prod. Res..

[16]  Jiang Nan,et al.  Measuring Technological Collaboration on Blockchain Based on Patents: A Social Network Analysis Approach , 2021, Science, Technology and Society.

[17]  Dragan Kukolj,et al.  Review of technology trends in new space missions using a patent analytics approach , 2021 .

[18]  Alireza Babaei Bondarti,et al.  Blockchain Technology Forecasting by Patent Analytics and text mining , 2021, Blockchain: Research and Applications.

[19]  M. Bourlakis,et al.  Blockchain adoption in food supply chains: a review and implementation framework , 2021, Production Planning & Control.

[20]  Min-Hang Weng,et al.  Revealing Development Trends in Blockchain-Based 5G Network Technologies through Patent Analysis , 2021, Sustainability.

[21]  Shih‐Chih Chen,et al.  Consumers’ Intention to Adopt Blockchain Food Traceability Technology towards Organic Food Products , 2021, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[22]  A. Ayyasamy,et al.  IoT-Blockchain driven traceability techniques for improved safety measures in food supply chain , 2021, International Journal of Information Technology.

[23]  Fran Casino,et al.  Blockchain-based food supply chain traceability: a case study in the dairy sector , 2020, Int. J. Prod. Res..

[24]  Jay Prakash,et al.  Applying Blockchain in Agriculture: A Study on Blockchain Technology, Benefits, and Challenges , 2021 .

[25]  Katiuscia Mannaro,et al.  A Blockchain-Based Traceability System in Agri-Food SME: Case Study of a Traditional Bakery , 2021, IEEE Access.

[26]  V. Madhusudanan Pillai,et al.  Supply chain transparency through blockchain-based traceability: An overview with demonstration , 2020, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[27]  Dejan Rančić,et al.  Wireless Sensor Network in Agriculture: Model of Cyber Security , 2020, Sensors.

[28]  John G. Keogh,et al.  Blockchain Technology in the Food Industry: A Review of Potentials, Challenges and Future Research Directions , 2020, Logistics.

[29]  Jianping Qian,et al.  Traceability in food processing: problems, methods, and performance evaluations—a review , 2020, Critical reviews in food science and nutrition.

[30]  Niccolò Patelli,et al.  Blockchain technology and traceability in the agrifood industry. , 2020, Journal of food science.

[31]  Pascal Ravesteijn,et al.  Blockchain for Organic Food Traceability: Case Studies on Drivers and Challenges , 2020, Frontiers in Blockchain.

[32]  D. Gligor,et al.  Applying Blockchain for Halal food traceability , 2020, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications.

[33]  Dragan Kukolj,et al.  Analysing patents of start-ups in AI-based automotive industry , 2020, International Journal of Technoentrepreneurship.

[34]  P. Pontrandolfo,et al.  A systematic literature review to explore traceability and lifecycle relationship , 2020, Int. J. Prod. Res..

[35]  Yann-Jy Yang,et al.  Recent Development Trend of Blockchain Technologies: A Patent Analysis , 2020, International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies.

[36]  N. Subramanian,et al.  Blockchain and Supply Chain Logistics , 2020 .

[37]  M. Weng,et al.  A Study on the Development Trends of the Energy System with Blockchain Technology Using Patent Analysis , 2020, Sustainability.

[38]  Bedir Tekinerdogan,et al.  Blockchain Applications in the Agri-Food Domain: The First Wave , 2020, Frontiers in Genetics.

[39]  S. C. Lenny Koh,et al.  Blockchain applications in supply chains, transport and logistics: a systematic review of the literature , 2019, Int. J. Prod. Res..

[40]  N. Subramanian,et al.  Blockchain Applications in Food Supply Chain , 2020 .

[41]  Pinchen Cui,et al.  Blockchain in IoT: Current Trends, Challenges, and Future Roadmap , 2019, Journal of Hardware and Systems Security.

[42]  Federico Pallottino,et al.  A Review on blockchain applications in the agri-food sector. , 2019, Journal of the science of food and agriculture.

[43]  C. Costa,et al.  Food traceability: a term map analysis basic review , 2019, European Food Research and Technology.

[44]  Baisakhi Das,et al.  Is Blockchain the Future of Supply Chain Management—A Review Paper , 2019 .

[45]  Guoqing Zhao,et al.  Blockchain technology in agri-food value chain management: A synthesis of applications, challenges and future research directions , 2019, Comput. Ind..

[46]  Andreas Kamilaris,et al.  The Rise of Blockchain Technology in Agriculture and Food Supply Chains , 2019, Trends in Food Science & Technology.

[47]  Keyvan Vakili,et al.  Topic Modeling in Management Research: Rendering New Theory from Textual Data , 2019, Academy of Management Annals.

[48]  Andrea Pinna,et al.  Ensure Traceability in European Food Supply Chain by Using a Blockchain System , 2019, 2019 IEEE/ACM 2nd International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Software Engineering for Blockchain (WETSEB).

[49]  Khaled Salah,et al.  Blockchain-Based Soybean Traceability in Agricultural Supply Chain , 2019, IEEE Access.

[50]  Dragan D. Kukolj,et al.  Identification of Essential Patents in AI based Automotive Patent Portfolio , 2019, 2019 Zooming Innovation in Consumer Technologies Conference (ZINC).

[51]  P. Beynon-Davies,et al.  Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda , 2019, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.

[52]  Andrea Renda,et al.  The Age of Foodtech: Optimizing the Agri-Food Chain with Digital Technologies , 2019, Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Sustainable Food Systems.

[53]  SMART Supply Network , 2019, EcoProduction.

[54]  Davor Dujak,et al.  Blockchain Applications in Supply Chain , 2018, SMART Supply Network.

[55]  Reshma Kamath,et al.  Food Traceability on Blockchain: Walmart’s Pork and Mango Pilots with IBM , 2018, The Journal of the British Blockchain Association.

[56]  Alix E. Rojas,et al.  Methodological Approach to the Definition of a Blockchain System for the Food Industry Supply Chain Traceability , 2018, ICCSA.

[57]  Shweta Agarwal.  Blockchain technology in Supply Chain and Logistics , 2018 .

[58]  Sungjoo Lee,et al.  Identifying promising technologies using patents: A retrospective feature analysis and a prospective needs analysis on outlier patents , 2017 .

[59]  Arho Suominen,et al.  Firms' knowledge profiles: Mapping patent data with unsupervised learning , 2017 .

[60]  Kwangsoo Kim,et al.  Monitoring emerging technologies for technology planning using technical keyword based analysis from patent data , 2017 .

[61]  Vikas Bajpai,et al.  India’s Second Green Revolution: Portends for Future and Possible Alternatives , 2015 .

[62]  Nathalie Sick,et al.  Identifying trends in battery technologies with regard to electric mobility: evidence from patenting activities along and across the battery value chain , 2015 .

[63]  Nils C. Newman,et al.  Clustering scientific documents with topic modeling , 2014, Scientometrics.

[64]  D. Kukolj,et al.  Towards Understanding the Role and Value of Patents in a Knowledge-Based Economy , 2013 .

[65]  Tuomo Kässi,et al.  Patent citations as a tool for analysing the early stages of convergence , 2013 .

[66]  R. Manzini,et al.  The new conceptual framework for food supply chain assessment , 2013 .

[67]  L. Azeez,et al.  Available Online at www , 2010 .

[68]  Chao-Chan Wu,et al.  Using patent analyses to monitor the technological trends in an emerging field of technology: a case of carbon nanotube field emission display , 2009, Scientometrics.

[69]  Peter Willett,et al.  The Porter stemming algorithm: then and now , 2006, Program.

[70]  F. Schwägele.  Traceability from a European perspective. , 2005, Meat science.

[71]  Holger Ernst,et al.  Patent information for strategic technology management , 2003 .

[72]  Z. Griliches,et al.  Citations, Family Size, Opposition and the Value of Patent Rights Have Profited from Comments and Suggestions , 2002 .

[73]  Michael I. Jordan,et al.  Latent Dirichlet Allocation , 2001, J. Mach. Learn. Res..