IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July/August 2021 - 71

higher prices. Smart phone images are ideal for
the Global South because they
a) are location aware;
b) are language agnostic;
c) are accessible to all education levels;
d) are harder to fake consistently without detection
than simply recording text information;
e) contain metadata that can be used for verification
and validation efforts;22 and
f) are now relatively affordable and common
even in the Global South,23 which takes
advantage of an existing resource.
The proposed smart honey traceability system
makes the following major contributions to
society and the literature.
TENETS OF A TRACEABILITY SYSTEM
A traceability system that starts collecting
Reduce Honey Fraud: Honey is one of the
most faked foods in the world. This system
would reduce that fraud through smart tracking
of the production and supply chain and
smart verification of authenticity with the
pollen signature.
Increase Food Safety: Fraudulent Honey poses
a risk to consumers' health as well as the economic
loss. This system can trace food to the
source, not just verify it is real, increase food
safety and producer accountability.
Reduce Poverty: This smart system can help
reduce poverty by giving beekeepers better
access to premium markets. It also
gives a path for jobless and disadvantaged
groups to participate in the economy more
efficiently due to the low barriers to entry
of beekeeping compared to other agriculture
markets that require access to land to
grow crops.
Crop Production and Biodiversity: By making
beekeeping more attractive economically,
farmers will benefit from better pollination of
crops, increasing yield and nature will benefit
through more effective pollination improving
natural growth and development.
Available Technology: This smart supply
chain solution shows how to use current
proven technology available and adapted to
the developing world in a novel and smart
way to have a real impact on the world. For a
solution to work in challenging areas, it is
critical to build it on technology they can
July/August 2021
data during production has the advantage of
proving honey is real at the outset rather than
trying to identify adulterated honey at the end of
the supply chain. This paradigm shift requires
proving integrity in production (volume and
type), validating distribution (chain of custody),
and product verification at the final sale (pollen
signature). Each of these pieces require smart
agricultural systems for production, distribution,
and a smart consumer interface to verify
the product history and authenticity.
We show how accessible communication systems
with verified users and a smartphone camera
can provide the data needed via text
messages, WhatsApp, WeChat, Signal, or a dedicated
application. These methods are preferred
to email or web submissions because they are
location-aware (on the smartphone) and users
are verified by the provider, giving more
accountability and reducing gamesmanship.
Thedataneededfor this system include
images and occasional responsive messages
from the system through the beekeepers preferred
communication tool. The images needed
vary depending on whether beekeepers are
selling generic honey or premium honey based
on origin, variety, or management practices
(e.g., sustainable practices) as illustrated in
Figure 1.
In the next sections, we show how the collected
data, recorded on a blockchain and
supplemented with secondary data, machine
learning, and statistical algorithms, can provide
71
afford, understand, and use, thus increasing
its impact and success.
Advanced Technology: While the data collection
system uses proven available technology,
the analysis system on the data collected
is state of the art with image processing,
blockchain technology, pollen signature verification,
and algorithmic backtracking providing
a unique and novel solution to a real
problem.
Example: This system can serve as a model
for other systems for smart agricultural projects
to traceability.
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July/August 2021

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