CIBUS innovatively solving the Food Safety issues using Blockchain

The CIBUS ICO Token sale is on. (Image credits CIBUS ICO)

Anybody who has an allergy knows how important it is that the allergy info declared on a pack needs to be an accurate number. No guess-work. No estimates.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous food processors are after profits. More than the safety of the consumer. This is not limited to the small players. Occasionally, mistakes occur in the supply chain and that is wont to bring almost life-threatening consequences to the unsuspecting consumers.

Blame it on profiteering.

Or mere recklessness and unethical competition.

But lives are endangered.

And people go to prison too late. After lives have been wasted and millions wasted in litigation.

It is not only allergy.

We all know the countless recalls that are reported every month because food products fail safety standards. Or problems are already reported by consumers and consumer watch organisations.

Those recalls are only addressing the symptoms. They are reactions to a failure in the process. Some which are due to human error. Others because of process collapse. Yet others because of clever analytical tools currently available to various agencies that monitor food safety.

There is the issue of denial and evasion of  responsibility by the culprits. Plus the culpability of the regulatory agencies in a number of countries. Meaning they can be hushed through bribery and other incentives. That usually leaves the hapless population without anywhere to run to. 

I have witnessed some of these first hand in Africa. Cases of dumping of sub-standard and unsafe agricultural products that could not pass the safety standards in their countries of origins are not uncommon. All one needs to do is to know the right guy to talk to in government and what was a waste product is suddenly a goldmine. Thus radioactive products have landed in some countries, exposing thousands of unsuspecting and hungry people to products that should never have been shipped, let alone offered for human consumption.

That is abetted by unscrupulous government officials whose only motivation is to get the cut and then corrupt records to give the contaminated products a clean bill of health.

This is not limited to imports. Even local agricultural products that fail mycotoxin tests are passed on as fit for human consumption. That has deleterious impact on consumer health.

Now that is almost coming to an end.

The one powerful enabler that is killing all that unprofessionalism is BLOCKCHAIN technology.

Take this as an incorruptible record-keeping process where the trail of papers that would usually disappear from government honchos are duplicated over several computers and stored in hundreds of thousands of ledgers. Corrupting one is invalid. Because the smart contract ensures that there is a threshhold of records, called ledgers, that must be corrupted in order to effect the malicious alteration and hide the asinine act.

Since that is not practically possible, there is integrity of records.

Those records include ingredients, ingredient origin, trace-ability, compositional data, producer details, shipping details, manufacturers details and product codes.

Those are humongous volumes of data.

The CIBUS Ecosystem (Image Credits CIBUS ICO)

Enter CIBUS. The application of the Blockchain technology is going beyond cryptocurrency. It is entering the supply chain and Food Chain. I call it "The Blockchain meets the Food Chain".

CIBUS is placed between the Seller and the buyer of the food. That cuts across the supply chain. It invades the food ecosystem. This ecosystem is more than buying and selling. It is more than warehousing. It is more than retail market and the production and distribution. This is everything about food. The food composition. The production process. The packaging and claims connected to food and supplements market. The regulatory environment. 

EVRYTHING FOOD.

You may say from Farm-to-Fork.

This, if executed well, is powerful. It should create smart tools, including apps and access to QR Code databanks that enable data mining to extract and simplify data for the consumer. This makes the consumer foolproof in a way that the food industry has to wake up and realise the power is shifted to the consumer.

The Consumer if KING. 

For that is what it should be.

And this is enabled by the power of Blockchain when exploited by smart solutions like those being offered by CIBUS.

When this model is finally rolled out, the ecosystem shall also cover advertisement and marketing. Meaning that the consumer is empowered to monitor in realtime, the claims being made by food producers and countercheck that with the regulatory environment to ensure no frivolous claims are made with no basis in scientific fact.

The time to fool around with weasel claims and reckless marketeering may be coming to a screeching halt. 

This complexity can be simplified. CIBUS is offering a powerful panoply of tools to disambiguate the food ecosystem. The next big challenge is adoption. 

This is for the consumer. That consumer needs awareness of these tools and with open hands, must embrace technology to help unravel the "mystery" of food production.

If you find this information useful, please join those of us who have embraced the vision of CIBUS and let us make our food ecosystem consumer-friendly.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own. I am NOT qualified to advise on financial investments. Investing in Crypto and ICOS is a risky affair. Only invest what you are ready to lose.