Digital product passport for soybeans

DPP4Food research project develops prototype for tracking food supply chains

23-Aug-2024

In future, digital product passports will make the supply chains of products traceable for companies and consumers. This should make manufacturing conditions visible and help a sustainable circular economy achieve a breakthrough. St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences is coordinating a research project that is developing a prototype for a digital product passport for food supply chains using the example of soybeans.

The European Green Deal, the Green Claims Directive, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Supply Chain Act, which will come into force in July 2025, aim to help circular economy practices achieve a breakthrough and make information on the manufacturing conditions and supply routes of products and their components freely available.

Greater transparency and better traceability along the supply chain can lead to higher quality food produced in an environmentally friendly way, for example. A basic building block of these efforts is the concept of a digital product passport. It is intended as a general framework for the digital storage of information, validation of data, product tracking and administration and is to be handled via a platform.

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Capturing complex supply chains

"There are several hurdles to overcome in the practical implementation of a digital product passport. Firstly, the complexity of the supply chains is challenging, and secondly, it must be ensured that the various technical systems and organizations can communicate with each other," says Alexandra Anderluh from the Carl Ritter von Ghega Institute for Integrated Mobility Research at St. Pölten UAS, who is leading the project.

The legal framework conditions that the different systems entail must also be taken into account. Technologies such as distributed ledger technologies, blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are used to implement the digital product passport.

"In our project, we are working on a comprehensive concept and developing a laboratory prototype. To do this, we are networking with researchers who are already working on a digital product passport, docking into national and European research initiatives on the topic and creating a solid foundation for our research work with the existing findings," says Anderluh.

Involvement of stakeholders

A key element of the project is the active involvement of various interest groups/stakeholders along the food supply chain. Their knowledge and contributions help to design the prototype and the underlying digital infrastructure to suit the target group.

Help for agriculture and businesses

"It is difficult for farmers and small and medium-sized companies in the food industry to keep up with the latest developments, especially when it comes to digitalization and the use of modern technologies. This can not only result in competitive disadvantages, but also has a negative impact on the general acceptance of technologies," says Anderluh.

A key aim of the project is to remedy this situation and promote cooperation in research and development with and between small and medium-sized enterprises in Lower Austria. Particular attention is being paid to food production companies, which the project aims to give easier access to new technologies and the opportunity to adapt and test them to their specific requirements.

The digital product passport can also improve cooperation with and among supply chain partners and thus contribute to reducing the ecological footprint.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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