Blockchain Technology in the Food Industry: A Comprehensive Review of Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions

The global food industry faces mounting pressure to deliver greater transparency, safety, and accountability across increasingly complex supply chains. Foodborne illness outbreaks, fraudulent labeling, contamination scandals, and consumer demand for ethically sourced products have intensified the need for trustworthy traceability mechanisms. Blockchain technology, with its distributed, immutable, and cryptographically secured ledger, has emerged as a promising solution capable of recording every transaction across the farm-to-fork continuum. This paper presents a comprehensive review of blockchain applications in the food industry, examining technical architectures, smart contract automation, integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning, and the role of permissioned ledgers in regulatory compliance. The review draws on twenty peer-reviewed sources spanning 2020 through 2026, covering perishable goods, agri-food chains, dairy, seafood, and smallholder agriculture. Findings indicate that blockchain delivers measurable improvements in traceability, recall efficiency, food safety, and supply chain resilience, while contributing to sustainability goals. However, persistent barriers, including high implementation costs, scalability constraints, regulatory ambiguity, technical complexity, and limited interoperability, continue to restrain broad adoption. The paper concludes that successful deployment will hinge on hybrid architectures, privacy-preserving designs, integration with complementary technologies, and inclusive economic models that benefit smallholders. Strategic recommendations and future research priorities are presented to guide stakeholders, technologists, and policymakers in advancing blockchain-enabled food systems.