Why Transparency is Integral in the Food and Beverage Industry

1. Why Transparency is Integral in the Food and Beverage Industry It goes without saying that consumers in the food and beverage industry have the right to know exactly what they are eating. Generally, customers are interested in finding out the following information about their food and beverage purchases: ● ● The quality standards followed during food processing and packaging. The ingredients that went into the food preparation, and whether they are harmful for the consumer’s health. Allergy information if the consumer has any specific ailments. The ethical practices followed in raising animals in the case of meat-based products. ● ●

2. Addressing transparency issues in the industry with blockchain technology The food processing industry is growing rapidly, and studies show that there are 21,000 food companies in the United States alone, and have generated around $750 billion in revenue. Needless to say, it gets difficult for consumers to decide which brand they can trust to feed them well, which is why adopting supply chain traceability solutions has become crucial for food and beverage companies to retain customers. Authlink offers a range of blockchain-driven services that food and beverage brands use to employ a food transparency platform in their business and keep consumer satisfaction rates up as well. The following are the ways in which enhanced transparency can help your food brand flourish: 1. It promotes accountability for each link in the supply chain, from the farm to the table: Food gets sourced, processed and packaged through a number of steps before it reaches the customer. In order to ensure that all the steps happen the way they should, promoting accountability throughout the supply chain is essential. The Authlink platform records every transaction in real-time, so that each product-related activity can be tracked and verified efficiently. End customers can scan intelligent product labels to access detailed information about the product journey and make their purchase decisions.

3. 2. It ensures that proper food quality standards are being followed from start to finish: The quality of food purchase is a crucial point of concern for the majority of consumers, and they are willing to pay higher to ensure the same. A simple way to give customers the information they want is by updating food health, quality and safety standard data followed to create each product on the Authlink platform, and making it easily accessible. A simple smartphone scan will give consumers all the information they are looking for, confirm food authenticity and quality, and put their minds at ease. 3. It updates food provenance in real-time, which customers can use to trace the origins of their purchases: Tracing the origins of food products is highly important for many consumers, particularly for meat and dairy products. Ambiguity related to ethical issues that frequently occur in poultry farms, for example, can easily turn consumers away from particular brands. Bringing transparency in such issues is the only way to capture customer trust and boost sales in this situation. Consumers need to know that the animals are being raised humanely in clean and hygienic conditions. A simple way to do so is by using Authlink’s food track and trace solutions to make product origins traceable with a few taps. 4. It boost overall trust and efficiency of your business by ensuring smooth flow of products from one place to another: Paper documents can cause a lot of confusion along the supply chain, and they are quite difficult to organize and verify. This becomes a challenge for food brands looking to

4. improve their business processes by boosting business transparency. By going digital with the Authlink platform, food brands can automate many important processes and transactions along the supply chain, and ensure that products get processed and delivered on time. It leaves no room for compromises on food product quality at any point of time. This boosts customer satisfaction and trust regarding their product data authenticity as well. Explore transparency opportunities for your food and beverage business. Sign up for Authlink beta here, or schedule a free demo of the platform here.