Nutritional Substance Tracking System Using Unique Identifiers
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Solution Overview
Problem
The food and beverage industry lacks effective coordination and communication across silos, resulting in minimal information being passed to consumers about the origin, nutritional content, and degradation of nutritional substances from creation to consumption, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of transparency in quality and value.
Innovation Solution
A system for tracking and transmitting information about the creation, origin, nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of nutritional substances using unique identifiers such as tags or genetic attributes, allowing for the minimization of degradation and providing consumers with accurate information about the products they select.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the food and beverage industry operates as separate silos (growers, packagers, processors, distributors, retailers), then each group can independently manage their operations, but information regarding nutritional content, origin, and degradation is lost or not transmitted to consumers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where nutritional substance information (origin, creation, degradation, nutritional content) is continuously tracked and transmitted back through the supply chain to consumers. Each participant in the supply chain (growers, packagers, processors, distributors, retailers) contributes data that feeds into a centralized information system, which then provides feedback to consumers about the nutritional substance's journey and quality. This resolves the information loss problem by creating a closed-loop information flow that maintains data integrity across all silos.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal information tracking system that serves multiple functions simultaneously: tracking origin, monitoring nutritional degradation, storing creation information, and providing consumer education. This multi-functional system eliminates the need for separate tracking mechanisms for each type of information, reducing overall system complexity while comprehensively addressing information loss across the entire supply chain.
2Use of energy by moving object
If caloric content is increased to reduce starvation, then energy availability improves, but nutritional content (vitamins, minerals, proteins) is maintained at lower priority and may degrade
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous monitoring of nutritional substance degradation throughout the supply chain. By continuously tracking nutritional content from creation through processing, distribution, and retail, the system maintains awareness of nutritional quality at every stage. This continuous action allows for real-time identification of degradation points and enables interventions to preserve nutritional content even as caloric content is optimized, ensuring that nutritional reliability is maintained alongside energy availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical testing methods for nutritional analysis with information-based tracking systems. By using information technology to monitor and record nutritional content changes throughout the supply chain, the system can assess nutritional reliability without physical intervention that might degrade the substance. This substitution enables continuous assessment of nutritional quality while maintaining the substance's integrity.
3Productivity
If nutritional substances are processed and transformed through multiple stages, then product availability and accessibility improve, but degradation of nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by tracking and recording the initial nutritional, organoleptic, and aesthetic values of nutritional substances at the creation stage. This baseline information is stored and used to monitor degradation throughout subsequent processing and transformation stages. By establishing the initial state beforehand, the system can quantify exactly what value is lost during processing, enabling better process optimization to minimize degradation while maintaining product availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback loops that monitor nutritional substance degradation at each processing and transformation stage. This information is fed back to processors and handlers, enabling them to adjust processes to minimize value loss. The feedback mechanism creates accountability throughout the supply chain, ensuring that each participant takes steps to preserve nutritional value while maintaining productivity and product availability.
4Loss of information
If information about nutritional substance origin and creation is made available to consumers, then consumer awareness and informed choice improve, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary information system that acts as a mediator between the complex supply chain operations and the consumer. This intermediary system consolidates, standardizes, and presents information about origin and creation in a user-friendly format. By placing this intermediary layer between the complex backend operations and the consumer interface, the system makes origin information accessible without requiring the consumer to navigate complex tracking infrastructure, thus reducing perceived system complexity while maintaining full information transparency.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is an information encoding, marking, tracking, and transmission system for information related to nutritional substances, including nutritional content. Upon the creation of a nutritional substance, whether grown, raised, caught, collected or synthesized, information regarding the nutritional substance is accumulated, encoded and referenced to the particular nutritional substance. This information can be marked directly on the nutritional substance, but can instead be stored elsewhere, and referenced to the nutritional substance by means of a marking, unique identifier, a unique inherent property, unique genetic attribute, or an induced genetic attribute. A consumer of the nutritional substance can use this reference to retrieve the information regarding the creation of the particular nutritional substance.