Verifying sustainability credentials

Goal

To develop trusted digital assurance systems to underpin cost-effective and accurate sustainability credentialling of Australian agriculture and food products. 

This will enable testers to independently verify where and how food was produced, as well as quality, throughout the supply chain. 

Outcome

Our work will:

• enable independent validation of sustainability credentials and place of origin 
• enable verification of supply chain records, supporting food safety responses
• build trust in the quality and sustainability of Australian food
• further grow Australia’s reputation.

The problem

Currently, there are limited ways to verify credentials on sustainability and origin.  

This allows for fraudulent activity. For example, opportunities for substitution, dilution or misrepresentation at many points along the supply chain.

Inability to confirm that a physical product is irrefutably consistent with its supply chain documentation, also compromises regulators ability to respond to food safety incidents.

Lack of assurances around quality or other product attributes also diminishes consumer trust.

Our solution

Connecting data resources

We are leading the development of a national digital platform that brings together a wealth of disparate data from Australia's national research organisations so that it can be used to tackle our biggest challenges in water, food, biosecurity and forensics. Collaborators include the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Geoscience Australia and National Measurement Institute. The work is co-funded by the Australian Research Data Commons. 

Predicting place of production

We are using the environmental markers from soil and water to create isotopic fingerprints that are unique to an agricultural region and can be used to verify claims about provenance, sustainability and production methods.

For example, we are working with the South Australian Research and Development Institute and Australian Wine Research Institute on a provenance toolkit for wine producers. The end goal is to create a wine provenance map of Australia.

Partners

We are digitally transforming Australia’s agrifood supply chain and growing export premiums across commodities.

The Mission is a partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.