The Soil Association has launched a pilot provenance scheme this month, enabling shoppers to trace organic food from the farm to the shop shelf using a mobile phone scan.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Soil Association Certification and Provenance blockchain pilot in action. Picture: GRACE GELDERThe Soil Association Certification and Provenance blockchain pilot in action. Picture: GRACE GELDER (Image: Grace Gelder 2017)

The food and farming charity has teamed up with tech firm Provenance to pilot the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, revealing information about a product’s journey.

Head of farming Liz Bowles said: “With more shoppers wanting to know where their food is coming from, this initiative offers a fantastic solution to communicate provenance in an interactive and simple way. This technology will enable consumers to have much higher levels of trust in the food they buy as they can literally see where it has come from. For organic farmers it will enable them to be visible to their customers and offer them opportunities to develop their businesses using this technology to communicate more directly with consumers.”