SECURE TRACEABILITY IN THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN USING CELL PHONE READABLE DENDRITIC IDENTIFIERS

The long-term goal of the proposed project is to protect the US food supply from the dual scourges of contamination and counterfeiting while ensuring high levels of consumer trust through a low cost, highly usable and secure tracing methodology that is compatible with evolving approaches to information handling such as blockchain. This will be achieved via the utilization of existing manufacturing processes and cell phone infrastructure, in full partnership with stakeholders within the supply chain. The supporting objectives are:1. The creation of a low-cost robust and unclonable food-safe tag that utilizes a novel high security dendritic pattern formation technique coupled with standard methods and materials for food and agricultural item labeling to uniquely mark individual items or packages.2. The development of a high reliability pattern reading and recognition system based on a cell phone front end that is image noise tolerant and compatible with existing and emerging supply chain database approaches that can be used by anyone from field to kitchen with little or no training.3. The design and piloting of stakeholder-driven use models that fit with the economics and physical realities of the food and agricultural supply chain, and the socialization of food knowledge and safety via cell phone-based applications.