Not a blockchain!

If 25 years ago somebody would have claimed to deliver pizza as email attachment, the implausibility would have probably been lost for most people, as almost nobody was familiar with email at the time. Similarly, today many claims to track food using blockchain.

Whoever promotes QR encoded URLs as blockchain must be ridiculed. A legitimate QR code can be simply copied on illegitimate products: as such the landing web page is not reliable.

Moreover, it is true and far-reaching that the (bitcoin) blockchain can guarantee time-stamping, but it cannot guarantee validity, correctness, or accuracy of the content being time-stamped. So, despite landing on a legitimate web page, whatever has been notarized on the blockchain and is displayed on that web page can be false. You can order pizza via email, but it cannot be delivered by email.

Finally, if https is not used, if the notarizations are not signed, if a non-bitcoin blockchain is used, all these details do compromise the reliability further.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-09-29

?IBM Food Trust, EY Wine Blockchain, Carrefour Italia, and similar campaigns are just dishonest marketing gimmick, i.e. misleading advertising.

What is infuriating about these initiatives is the attempt to promote trust in non-sound technological choices; according to the noted security expert Bruce Schneier "supply-chain security is an incredibly complex problem” (see The Washington Post): what is an “insurmountable problem right now” for electronics, it is a daunting task for chickens too.