Maodong Xu is a billionaire entrepreneur and technology expert who has built a business empire designing and implementing the right solutions for his customer’s problems.
In his latest endeavor with Fresh2 – an eCommerce platform providing farm-to-table food deliverability solutions for specialty Asian cuisine, his team continues to develop solutions that will best promote sustainable, quality food delivery.
Among those technologies is the use of blockchain in food traceability.
“We’re looking at implementing blockchain as an improvement solution for many identified food industry inefficiencies,” says Maodong Xu.
“Discovering that blockchain brings promising solutions to more than just the financial companies and transactions is changing the way we look at technology and the future of the food supply industry.”
How Does Blockchain Factor into Food Traceability & Safety?
Over time, as experts in blockchain have recognized its importance to industries outside of finance, a push for adopting the technology has begun. Today, the food industry is embracing blockchain technology and, in some cases, even creating its own proprietary blockchain initiatives.
As early as 2019, blockchain was making waves in the food industry.
By 2025, it is projected that close to 20% of the world’s largest companies will implement the technology, supporting the notion that blockchain is here to stay and the next wave in food technology.
In a sector where product traceability changes the trust factor between suppliers and restaurant owners as well as restaurant owners and their customers, tracking is a huge issue that many companies have been slow to answer.
Tracking sheds light on the how, when, and where of food processing.
In the changing customer landscape where diners count health and sourcing as top considerations in their dining choice, making traceability easy is essential. Maodong Xu and his team at Fresh2 understand the ramifications of a fully traceable food supply and how it uplevels their food supply solutions.
Companies that do not track their products, processes, and supply sources are challenged to maintain the quality of the amount of information that’s not readily available to them. Blockchain technology brings an easy, affordable, and accountable way for companies to track and share the sourcing for their ingredients and food sources.
Why is Food Tracking Technology So Important?
Finding transparent labeling for food is a consistent challenge in the industry, and it affects restaurant owners and consumers alike.
Companies who are on the transparency bandwagon will continuously share important information about where their food is coming from—not so for the majority of food suppliers, and that’s not necessarily for nefarious purposes.
As Maodong Xu can attest, putting the tech that makes things easy and accessible in front of the user can be the easiest way to up their game.
“Most suppliers are not sitting back dealing nefariously with their customers,” says Maodong Xu of the lack of accountability and transparency. “It’s important to remember that people act on what’s easy, and having technology in place to make food tracking easy will be a game changer.”
While the majority of food suppliers are not acting unethically on purpose, there are always questionable practices and counterfeit food products that restaurant owners and consumers should be wary of.
Every industry sees counterfeiting, and in the food industry, that can be dangerous. Food traceability mitigates risk as full accountability edges out the questionable origins of food and supplies.
Even minor food contamination can become a public health crisis and PR nightmare, but having a means of tracing the source and quickly applying solutions-based responses can save a business, and possibly lives.
How can Blockchain Improve Food Traceability?
Tracking products is a logical, evident step in improving the food industry, and blockchain changes the game.
The technology can fully equip all users, end-to-end, with a record of where food has been along its journey to a restaurant kitchen, and eventually onto the plate of the customer.
The name of the game is quality, and tracing food sources and processing allows any business to build a quality product line and stand behind its best-quality food in the marketplace.
Further, blockchain plays an essential role in selecting the ideal supplier for a specific need. When food ingredients are involved, careful consideration of their source is a priority.
Blockchain implementation in the food industry supply chain connects restaurant owners with their preferred suppliers to ensure quality ingredients. Blockchain lends to the marketplace a connection mechanism that communicates quality by tracing food at every stop in its production and delivery process.
About Maodong Xu
As one of the great tech minds behind the eCommerce food delivery platform Fresh2, Maodong Xu is bringing his tech expertise to the food supply industry and changing the game by studying and implementing blockchain technology where it best serves the supply chain.
He is a globally recognized entrepreneur who understands that meeting consumer needs starts with connection and transparency, and technology allows that to happen with ease.
Fresh2 brings the best of China’s food distribution and sustainability solutions into the North American food supply space where Asian specialty cuisine has, for generations, found a lack of specialty ingredient availability and options.
With his team of developers, innovators, and implementors, Maodong Xu is working diligently to bring blockchain to daily food supply and sourcing workflows.