Supporting wine production from vineyard to glass through secure IoT devices and blockchain

Abstract

Temperature fluctuations can significantly affect the chemical composition of wine and in turn its taste and aromas. Therefore, there is the need to trace the journey of wine through the cold chain supply from vineyard to glass. Especially when product handling is managed by subcontractors or third parties (e.g., logistic services) an appropriate technological support is necessary to develop advanced packaging solutions able to monitor and certify transport conditions in a secure and tamper proof way.

Recently, monitoring and traceability systems have evolved by incorporating novel solutions such as cloud storage, to allow remote consultation and continuous data availability. However, these solutions lack a sufficient level of security, especially in heterogeneous and thrustless environments. This is the case of the wine industry, where several different organizations should collaborate from the vineyard to the final distribution without an adequate level of mutual trust.

In this perspective, we propose an innovative solution that aims to improve wine cold chain management, through cutting-edge technological solutions capable of ensuring the safety and integrity of temperature-sensitive products throughout the entire production and distribution process. It is based on two main ingredients: the use of IoT devices with high security standards (tamper-poof hardware and software) and the use of blockchain technology, a public and non-modifiable register that allows secure and immutable storage of information.

Compared to existing solutions [5,6], the proposed one exhibits radically different and superior safety features, which are essential in the case of precious wine products or wines subject to specific classifications, like DOP or IGP. In particular, the used devices autonomously produce measurements of temperature, humidity or other physical quantities and publish their values directly on the blockchain, making them unchangeable and non-repudiable. Any deviation from optimal conditions can be timely identified and communicated without the possibility of falsification. The used devices are very flexible and configurable, allowing the measurement and safe saving of various physical quantities, not only temperature and humidity, but potentially also vibrations, electromagnetic radiation, light radiation and many others depending on the needs of the customers. Finally, security is significantly improved both at the sensor level (tamper-proof software/hardware) and in data storage. The sensors are authenticated and verified against tampering, because any attempt to modify a sensor would render it unusable. Storage takes place on blockchain, public and non-modifiable, without intermediaries (such as centralized servers or the cloud) who could tamper with them. Overall, the proposed solution can increase consumer confidence in product quality and safety, as well as the trust among participants, with an immediate identification of roles and responsibilities.