China turns to Northern Ireland expert in tackling food fraud

Data specialist Arc-net in Belfast is part of a €10 million project with the authorities in China to tackle food fraud using leading-edge blockchain technology.

The project is being led by Queen's University's Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in the EU-China-Safe initiative, which is part-funded by the European Horizon 2020 programme. It aims to reduce food fraud by focusing on traceability and improving food inspection across the supply chain networks of the EU and China.

Arc-net was founded by Kieran Kelly, a data management expert, in 2014 to develop a technology platform to trace meat products from farm to fork, using animals' DNA.

Mr Kelly, who comes from Banbridge in county Down, said Arc-net was "delighted" to be selected as technology partner in what would be "a ground-breaking and transformative project".

He added "Arc-net's mission has always been to ensure the health of current and future generations by providing access to safe and authentic food, and we see this project as a vital step in achieving this goal.

"The use of innovative technologies will result in the creation of a fully transparent supply chain network, which will become the foundation for a trusted digital community."

Professor Yongning Wu, chief scientist from the China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment, co-ordinator of the Chinese efforts in the project, said: "The EU-China-Safe partnership between our two trading regions is of immense importance to help deliver safe and genuine food to all citizens.

"Working together across the EU and China will enable us to identify where food fraud is happening, address the root causes and thereby enable us to improve food safety standards for all our citizens."

Arc-net plans to use blockchain to improve the traceability of food. Blockchain is a sealed database designed to maintain a continuously growing list of records called blocks.

Each block contains a timestamp and a secure link to the previous block. Access to blockchains is limited to authorised community members. Arc-net is among a number of companies in Belfast investigating uses of blockchain.

Headquartered in Belfast, Arc-net has offices in Edinburgh and San Francisco.
It has also worked with the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen's, Cranswick plc - which owns Dunbia's former pork operation in Ballymena - and various Northern Ireland-based red meat producers.