Hash Tree Food Data Tracking for Tamper-Proof Traceability
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for tracking food safety data lack comprehensive and tamper-proof solutions that can efficiently identify and verify the authenticity of data across the entire food product lifecycle, from production to consumption, affecting the ability to quickly respond to food safety incidents and ensuring the integrity of data across various stakeholders.
Innovation Solution
A network data processing system that utilizes hash trees to track food data transactions, appending food data transactions to a packaged food production data hash tree and causing decentralized storage across multiple network storage devices, ensuring data integrity and authenticity through cryptographic hashing and digital signatures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional centralized data storage methods are used for food safety tracking, then data access and management are simplified, but data integrity and tamper-proof capabilities are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments food safety data into hierarchical groups (e.g., by production batch, time period, or product type), with each group assigned a unique hash value. This segmentation allows selective verification of specific data subsets without requiring validation of the entire dataset, thereby maintaining data integrity while reducing system complexity and verification overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hash values as intermediary elements that mediate between raw food safety data and verification processes. These hash values serve as cryptographic representatives that enable tamper-proof tracking and authentication without requiring direct access to or validation of the underlying complex data structures, thus preserving reliability while managing complexity.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive food safety data is collected across the entire product lifecycle, then traceability and incident response capability are improved, but data verification and authentication become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies cryptographic hashing to food safety data at the point of generation during various lifecycle stages (production, processing, distribution). This preliminary action creates immutable hash representations that travel with the data, enabling easy verification and traceability without requiring complex authentication processes later in the supply chain.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates hash value copies of food safety data that can be independently verified without accessing the original complex datasets. These cryptographic copies maintain the essential verification properties while being significantly simpler to handle, store, and authenticate, thus improving traceability while reducing verification difficulty.
3Loss of time
If quick access to food safety data is implemented for incident response, then response time is reduced, but data authenticity verification may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts essential authentication information in the form of hash values from the complete food safety data sets. These extracted hash values can be quickly accessed and verified independently, enabling rapid incident response while maintaining data authenticity verification through cryptographic validation of the extracted representations.
4Reliability
If decentralized storage of food safety data is implemented across multiple locations, then data security and tamper-proof capabilities are improved, but data access and management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the decentralized storage architecture with a centralized hash index system. Individual food safety data records are distributed across multiple secure locations, but their hash representations are maintained in a centralized, easily accessible index. This combination provides tamper-proof decentralized storage while maintaining ease of data access and management through the centralized hashing mechanism.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The present invention provides a method for tracking food data transactions in a network data processing system comprising the steps of reading a network storage devices a packaged food production data hash tree, receiving a food data transaction from a hardware data processor in a food packaging machine, appending the food data transaction to the packaged food production data hash tree, and causing decentralised storage of identical instances of the appended packaged food production data hash tree in the plurality of network storage devices. The present invention further provides a network data processing system and a computer program for carrying out the method.