New blockchain technology hopes to alleviate traceability woes

Viiison, a new blockchain technology provider, unveiled its technology suite earlier this year at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

Brittany Hansen, impact officer at Viiison, spoke with The Packer about how her company’s technology can help produce packers better inform their consumers and alleviate issues within the supply chain.

Hansen says Viiision’s technology has several components. The first is to provide information to consumers. Viiision offers a dynamic QR code, where a grower and packer can update the information on the linked QR code without generating a new code.

“So much information has to go on packaging all the time,” she said. “There’s no good way to change information behind packaging. Our QR codes are dynamic, so you can leave the same code on your packaging and go in and change everything behind it.”

Hansen says Viiision’s QR codes also use smart language technology, so when a user scans the QR code, it will sense the home language on the user’s phone and deliver the information in that language.

Another issue Hansen says Viiision hopes to alleviate is traceability. 

“We’ve noticed there’s some real supply and supply chain issues lately,” she said. “What ends up happening is companies end up looking really, really bad for things that often are not their fault. They don’t have a way to prove what they were doing or where the product came from. And they don’t have a clear shot of their supply chain from beginning to end.”

Hansen said this can be costly when something does happen and a packer or grower needs to initiate a recall.

“If you can’t prove your supply chain, those recalls just get bigger and bigger because you don’t know where everything went,” she said. “This is about protection. This is about the future and protecting your business and your goods so that you can continue to grow your business.”

Viiision provides proof of origin and provenance in a way that keeps information, such as vendors, farms and more, secure.

“We work on permission access for people so that you can prove when you have to, and have the insurance when you have to [provide traceability information] but not share it with everyone," Hansen said.

Keeping data secure is another element of Viiision, Hansen says. While the blockchain used in Viiision can transmit 57,000 transactions per second, it is also a layer-zero blockchain.

“Our code is smart enough to realize that someone was trying to hack into it and change things or mess with things,” she said. “And it will rewrite itself so that it’s difficult to hack.”

Hansen says using blockchain is a critical step in traceability, documenting each step from harvest to end purchase of fresh produce.

“What’s nice about blockchain and the reason people inside supply chains need blockchain is that blockchain is indisputable,” she said. “You can’t change it, once something is in it.”

Hansen says blockchain accounts for human error in data entry and also documents when someone makes corrections to data in the blockchain.

“Let’s say there was a human error, and you said strawberries went to Minnesota and strawberries actually went to Milwaukee,” she said. “You just log another entry that says, ‘We made an error. The strawberries went to Milwaukee and not Minnesota.’ But when you go back and look at things, nothing can be changed. It’s a great way to establish trust with the public within your own company, within your suppliers with the government.”