The TRUSTyFOOD project assesses the possibilities for blockchain technology to facilitate sustainable food system transformation and to provide regulatory guidance to ensure the sustainable and equitable use of the disruptive technology. We do this by engaging a wide range of stakeholders within the agrifood system, including farmers, processors, distributors, investors, and policymakers.
Beyond solutionism: assessing the real potential of blockchain
Blockchain technology ensures that data is unmodifiable, verifiable, and traceable, and can provide a simplified, trusted and tamper-resistant record of transactions by multiple parties. Due to its flexibility and ability to be used in a wide range of sectors, it is lauded as having the potential to address some of the challenges related to agri-food supply chains. By affording increased transparency and traceability of goods as they move along complex, globalised supply chains, blockchain could reduce waste and inefficiencies throughout supply chains. It could also protect against fraude, and increase the trustworthiness of different certification schemes (organic, Fair Trade, etc).
Amidst this hype, little is certain about the actual potential of blockchain to affect food system transformation. Blockchain exemplifies a quintessential modern technology in that it promises a combination of potential benefits, but also possibly entails risks and uncertainties. Furthermore, because the technology is still at an early stage of development, the scientific knowledge to assess the benefits and risks does not yet exist. To inform decision making and close the early-stage knowledge gap, this project engages different stakeholders to understand their perspectives on the potential applications of blockchain in the agri-food sector.
Exploring the extent to which blockchain may be leveraged for sustainable food solutions
The core objective of TRUSTyFOOD is to understand how blockchain is currently being used in a food system context. By focusing on the opportunities, challenges, and needs of stakeholders, we will obtain insight into how blockchain can be used in agrifood systems, and how it can be leveraged in the transformation towards sustainable food systems.
The primary output of the project will be a policy roadmap, providing recommendations to regulators on how to best manage the use of - and innovation with - blockchain technology to facilitate sustainable food system transformation.
Engaging agri-food stakeholders for a user-driven, blockchain-enabled sustainable food system
TRUSTyFOOD engages agri-food stakeholders at national, local, and EU level. These stakeholder engagement processes will be centered around surveys, interviews, focus group discussions, world cafes and co-creation activities.
In the stakeholder engagement sessions, farmers, investors, regulators, researchers, and other agri-food chain actors will work together to co-create visions of and strategies to achieve a blockchain-enabled sustainable food system in the future.
Athena’s role
The Athena Institute will play a leading role in the stakeholder engagement portion of the TRUSTyFOOD project, leveraging our expertise on food system transformation, disruptive technologies, and transdisciplinary stakeholder engagement. The process will involve developing and subsequently implementing a stakeholder engagement plan among the eight countries that form the project consortium.
Outcomes
The TRUSTyFOOD consortium held its final conference on the 25th of November 2025. The event was a culmination of three years of research into exploring the “truth” behind blockchain application in the agri-food sector across Europe and beyond. Around 100 researchers, policymakers, and institutional leaders joined the final conference to learn about the future of blockchain in the agri-food sector. Read about the final conference in the TRUSTyFOOD press release.