Model designed to enable fast, secure transfers of fresh produce, boosting UK food supply resilience.
BSI, the business improvement and standards company, has completed a two-year partnership with Trace Labs, core developers of OriginTrail open-source technology. The project, funded by Innovate UK, was set up to develop safer and more efficient systems for facilitating the flow of goods across international borders, with the results offering the potential to bring substantial benefits to the food sector and shore up the resilience of the global food supply chain.
To support the smoother flow of food products into and out of the United Kingdom (UK), BSI used its broad experience to develop a standards-based operating model for the Trusted Bytes Data Trust framework. The model is designed to make it much easier for all parties to source and confirm information about products and ensure compliance, streamlining the processes for border-crossing.
As part of the project, BSI helped to build the framework by combining the benefits of traditional standards with emerging supply chain standards and innovative technologies such as OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG). This approach demonstrates how standards can be leveraged to support future technologies that promote data sharing, enabling users to verify information provenance across industry stakeholders, government agencies and regulators for seamless and secure international trade.
The two-year “Trusted Bytes” project was launched as part of The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s “Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge”. It follows several periods of disruption to the import of food to the UK, both during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently, linked to factors including new trading arrangements with Europe and strikes at key ports.
There have also been highly-publicised shortages of perishable goods such as tomatoes. In January, BSI’s 2023 Supply Chain Risks Insight Report noted that factors including the war in Ukraine have triggered rapid global price inflation and created major food shortages, highlighting the importance of robust global supply chains.
Dan Purtell, Group Innovation Director at BSI commented: “BSI is delighted with the outcomes of this partnership with Trusted Bytes, which aims to drive productivity and transparency within UK and international supply chains. Digital transformation has the potential to change the way organizations and governments operate. By bringing together our expertise in convening, supply chain security and trade compliance with the latest technology, we can help improve transparency, increase trust, and enhance long-term sustainability.”
BSI and Trace Labs also developed Trusted Trader framework enhancements that showcase the future of trade compliance, assurance, and risk assessment, building on the globally recognized Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) scheme. The framework transforms supply chain data into discoverable, verifiable, and AI-ready Knowledge Assets that enhance real-time shipment risk assessment. This can enable UK customs to assess risk levels associated with incoming shipments in real-time from departure to arrival on UK soil, with the potential to make customs processes more focused and efficient. Technology enabled by SecureSystem Gmbh, and Contained Technologies supported BSI and Trace Labs in developing this.
The project also focused on establishing a trusted data exchange to connect the supply chain with central government and other critical partners, enhancing cross-border facilitation, compliance, and security. The framework developed within Trusted Bytes is reusable and can be deployed by government agencies globally to help embed trust and transparency into their cross-border processes.
Jurij Skornik, General Manager, Trace Labs, said: “Trusted Bytes is another example of a great collaboration between Trace Labs and BSI. As the developed framework is based on verifiable and connected knowledge, it provides a trusted foundation for shipment search and even AI solutions to improve efficiency further. With this advancement, customs agents will be able to ask any question about a shipment and associated risk and get a trusted answer almost instantly. This opens up a number of exciting opportunities and is made possible due to the characteristics of Knowledge Assets that enable information provenance to be verified.”
This project included partnering with multiple organizations with specific specialities. These included:
- Melon & Co, is an agricultural business which manages an end-to-end supply of melons to the UK.
- Trace Labs, the Core developers of the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph and builders of world-class Web3 tech at Core.
- Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency provides money and support to organizations to make new products and services.
Trusted Bytes was funded by Innovate UK as part of the ISCF Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge, project number 94831.
