MSc Project: Blockchain Technology and Food Waste in the UK

This research project investigates the application of blockchain technology to combat food waste and enhance food security within the United Kingdom. The study begins by highlighting the alarming rates of food waste in the UK, the associated economic costs, and the global implications of food insecurity. It emphasizes the potential of blockchain to address inefficiencies in the food supply chain, improve traceability, and reduce waste. The research aims to identify the reasons behind food wastage in the UK, explore the application of blockchain technology to mitigate these issues, and find strategies to ensure greater food security. The methodology includes a literature review, and data analysis. The project examines the current state of food waste management, the challenges faced by the food industry, and how blockchain can offer solutions. The results, presented through tables and descriptive analysis, assess the perceptions of stakeholders regarding food wastage, government responsibility, and the potential of blockchain technology. The conclusion summarizes the findings, links them to the research objectives, and provides recommendations for future research and implementation.

Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT
Research Project
Topic: Using Blockchain to Combat Food Waste and Ensure Food Security in the UK
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract
The world is at such a place where a part of the people residing in the world in enjoying all
sorts of amenities available where the other part of the world is not at receiving the basic
necessities of life. This is also being translated to the availability of food. The basic
requirement of food is thought to be equally distributed amongst all the people within the
organizations but at the same time, the occurrences of the phenomenon about the wastage of
food is affecting the world in a much more gruesome way. Such is the amount of food
wastage found in the entire world, that is has become a huge issue that needs to be solved at
any cost. In the United Kingdom alone, the amount of food that is wasted does not only
consist of the disposable food. It has also been found that there are various occurrences in UK
alone that has resulted in alarming rates of food wastage. For this reason, the government of
United Kingdom has been looking forward to the utilization of the technological
advancement to find out a way for fighting against the wastage of food in the United
Kingdom. This is why, the blockchain technology is thought for considering as a mechanism
to be considered for fighting the wastage of food in United Kingdom. The study is thus
concerned for the development of the thesis below to consider all the constraints of battling
the wastage of food. The study also is conducted for considering all the aspects of the
alignment of blockchain technology for fighting the food wastage in UK and how is the
feasible as a technology considering the studies conducted and data collected through primary
and secondary sources.

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Acknowledgements
This research and its conduction process have been one of the most inspiring experiences I
have had. This research has been one of the most influential ways by which I have enhanced
by analytical skills and knowledge base. I could say that it has reached a level of paramount.
However, this could not have been possible without the valuable guidance of my professors,
my peers and everybody who have provided guidance throughout my research. Without the
guidance, I could not have been able to finish or even begin my research. On this occasion, I
would like to thank my supervisor ___________________________ for providing me with
the constant support and guidance throughout. It would like to be acknowledging enough to
thank my academic guides for their important and valuable assistance and encouragement
throughout the research process. I would also like to thank my friends who had provided me
with help and encouragement for collecting primary data and valuable resources.
Heartfelt thanks and regard,
Yours sincerely,

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................5
Background of the study........................................................................................................5
Research Aims and Objectives...............................................................................................6
Research Questions................................................................................................................7
Problem Statement.................................................................................................................7
The rationale of the study.......................................................................................................7
Research Hypothesis..............................................................................................................8
Structure of the study.............................................................................................................8
Chapter 2: Literature Review...................................................................................................10
Introduction..........................................................................................................................10
Conceptual Framework............................................................................................................11
Findings of the Study...........................................................................................................11
Gap in the Literature............................................................................................................20
Chapter Summary.................................................................................................................20
Chapter 3: Research Methodology...........................................................................................21
Introduction..........................................................................................................................21
Method Outline....................................................................................................................22
Research Philosophy............................................................................................................23
Research Approach..............................................................................................................24
Research Design...................................................................................................................25
Data Collection Process.......................................................................................................25
Ethical Consideration...........................................................................................................26
Limitations of the study.......................................................................................................26
Chapter Summary.................................................................................................................28
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results......................................................................................28
Introduction..........................................................................................................................28
Empirical Results.................................................................................................................29
1. Distribution of Gender.................................................................................................31
2. Distribution of age group.............................................................................................31
Descriptive study..................................................................................................................32
Summary..............................................................................................................................39
Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations.......................................................................40
Conclusion............................................................................................................................40
Linking with Objectives.......................................................................................................42
Recommendations................................................................................................................43
Limitations of research.........................................................................................................44

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Future scope of the study.....................................................................................................45
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................46
Table 1: Distribution of Gender............................................................................................31
Table 2: Distribution of age group.......................................................................................31
Table 3: Do you believe that the wastage of food in the United Kingdom is rising at an
alarming rate?........................................................................................................................32
Table 4: Do you think that the government has been responsible for not controlling the
wastage of food?.....................................................................................................................33
Table 5: Do you believe that both the food-based organizations and the population in
UK are responsible for the situation?...................................................................................34
Table 6: Do you believe that the food stamping and tracking facilities will ensure
reduction in food wastage?....................................................................................................36
Table 7: Do you believe that the framework of implementing legislative measures
against food wastage would reduce the random throwing of food?..................................37
Table 8: Do you believe that blockchain technology used for tracking food wastage is
the appropriate measure to fight food wastage in UK?......................................................38
Table 1: Distribution of Gender............................................................................................31
Table 2: Distribution of age group.......................................................................................31
Table 3: Do you believe that the wastage of food in the United Kingdom is rising at an
alarming rate?........................................................................................................................32
Table 4: Do you think that the government has been responsible for not controlling the
wastage of food?.....................................................................................................................33
Table 5: Do you believe that both the food-based organizations and the population in
UK are responsible for the situation?...................................................................................34
Table 6: Do you believe that the food stamping and tracking facilities will ensure
reduction in food wastage?....................................................................................................36
Table 7: Do you believe that the framework of implementing legislative measures
against food wastage would reduce the random throwing of food?..................................37
Table 8: Do you believe that blockchain technology used for tracking food wastage is
the appropriate measure to fight food wastage in UK?......................................................38

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Chapter 1: Introduction
Background of the study
The amount of waste in United Kingdom has been extremely staggering and the
estimated annual amount is also very problematic to listen to. It has been estimated that about
7.3 million tonnes food is wasted on an average every year by the households of United
Kingdom. It has been also found that the combination of all the food wastages taken from the
supply chains of the foods having combine to have an estimation of the protein food
wastages. it was found that the entire combination had an estimated value of about 15.5
million tonnes of food to be wasted at an annual rate. All these food items would almost cost
about 25 billion GBP every year. The households have a total estimated cost of wasted food
to be about 13 billion GBP. Contrasting into some different parts of the world people have
nothing to eat at all and it has also been found that the first world countries are wasting food
in this way. For ensuring that at least United Kingdom as a security measure of ensuring no
food or minimum food wastage and also enable food security, it has to be e taken into
consideration that some sort of benefits and Solutions need to be imbibed for combating all
the problems that possibly can be put together with the help of blockchain technology. it has
been found that if food security is not ensured by the year 2020, there can be a whole lot of
food waste presenting challenges to the Global visions for food security as well. This would
ensure that the imbalance that is caused due to the huge inadequate statistics found for
enabling the magnitude of a problem. since it has been found that the chances that food
security will reduce the amount of food wastage, it should be made sure that this food
security measure is implemented at the earliest so that food security and its Global goal can
be reached by the time it has been already 2020. The uses of the blockchain technology has

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been shining an unfazed light on all the food wastage problems and also reveals that there has
been a permission to mitigate the problem since humans have right now initiated and
persistently enable the wasteful attitude of food in them. Blockchain Technology or BCT has
also its wide popular past has been implemented by various organisations for having the
analysis and researchers done on the business information systems. it has also found its
application following all the social, financial and industrial sectors. The technology that has
been set in are still at the early stages of its development for food security system but it is still
usable for the real-life applications. blockchain Technology has its own architecture and
setting up several innovations within these architectures enables innovative structure that has
been the brainchild behind reaching the idea of using blockchain Technology for fighting
food security problems. However, blockchain Technology was previously done by different
organisations, including that banks as it begins to recognise the cryptocurrencies being
decentralized and forming unit of money. Where was the reason that blockchain Technology
has the ability to grow for more period bitcoin and this is what begin the disintermediation of
analysing the non-financial activities as well. the application of blockchain Technology does
got much more wide and other financial activities, company still adopted blockchain
Technology for various other industry and organisations as well. The blockchain technology
being used in other companies focusing other than financial sectors included healthcare,
logistics, manufacturing, energy and telecommunications. The acceptance of blockchain has
been increased in various organisations while forming its base with the analysis of
cryptocurrencies enamelling the technology with huge number of systems and platforms. this
technology is being used by various start-up organisations as well for exploring the
opportunities provided by blockchain technology in the logistics, food business and
agriculture as well. Since the demand of food in the entire world has been increasing
exponentially every day, there is a need of transparency that needs to be set in with the food

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industry. It has been found that people do not just blindly believe all the activities of the food
industry and therefore they have a little trust on the quality of food. This is why it has been
found that they are always checking the labelling and ensuring any potential frauds and
adulteration for taking measures against it. There are various other problems that could be
arising in the food industry including the faulty records, frauds and errors is well. Therefore,
these problems automatically pose numerous problems in the food distribution and food
consumption sector in the United Kingdom. Thus, there is research process going on to make
sure that blockchain Technology would most probably provide security to the wastage of
food especially in United Kingdom.
Research Aims and Objectives
Aim: The aim of this research is to understand the problem of food wastage in the UK
and to identify or develop strategies to combat it using blockchain technology. Also, the
research will aim at finding strategies and solutions for ensuring food security for the
organizations to ensure total food security all around the world by the year 2020.
Objectives:
 To find out the reasons behind food wastage in UK.
 To identify the problems and fight them using blockchain technology.
 To find out strategies to ensure further food security.
Research Questions
The research question can be framed as
 How the examination of strategies for waste management can be identified to
be used in the countries, especially the United Kingdom for managing

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household food waste with blockchain technology and prevent further food
wastage?
Problem Statement
It needs to be understood how the food supply chain in the entire United Kingdom is
working for conducting the analysis on the food supply industry within the entire country.
this is needed to be analysed for investigating all the possibilities that blockchain Technology
can address to for securing all the food wastage issues and have organisation in enabling a
better solution for managing all the wastage of food in the country. This should also be
dependent on the distribution of food in different communities that are in dire necessity of
preventing the food wastage to ensure that every person around in the entire world is not
getting food when in need. Therefore the investigation of the blockchain technology and to
enable it to address to the food security problems and provide particular and better solutions
would be e for understanding the potential of the technology in changing the entire process
and procedures that would be adopted for making it easier to supply all the food without
being wasted to the disaster zones in not just United Kingdom but the entire world and
implement distribution system that would be so transparent that communities will find it
much easier to enable supply of this food for homeless, refugees and the needy. Therefore,
this is the problem that the research process is going to solve to achieve the target of ensuring
total food security all around the world.
The rationale of the study
Blockchain technology, as an online ledger which records all transactions and which
shares data among registered users, is ideal for tracking and distributing surplus food.
Businesses and restaurants can be connected to local charities using blockchain technology

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and the organizations can communicate their needs at any time through the online ledger. In
United Kingdom alone, 133 billion pounds of food is wasted every year. The extra food can
potentially feed hundreds of families who struggle with hunger. With the help of blockchain
technology, organizations like Walmart gains the ability of providing any information to the
customer at any point of time within 2.2 seconds on an average. In case of any kind of natural
calamities, like for an epidemic, the company would have the ability to provide the customers
with a support of over six days and save lives with the utilization of the blockchain
technology.
Blockchain also helps in allowing the ability of food products being traced at any
place provided any possible time. The probability of this technology to trace the food
products reduces the chances of food getting waste. This also ensures that all the continental
food products can also be traced with this technology in a quicker and easier way. This will
allow only the safe foods to remain in the organisations, shops and other outlets so that they
cannot be send to the people in need when the time comes. Therefore, this study is necessary
to make sure that the complete understanding of the blockchain technology to prevent food
wastage is absolutely necessary in understanding to make sure that there isn’t any wastage of
food identified in the future.
Research Hypothesis
The research hypothesis can be figured out in the following way:
H0: Blockchain technology has no impact on the food wastage detection technique.
H1: Blockchain technology has an effective impact on the food wastage detection
technique.

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Structure of the study
The entire research paper has been disintegrated into various smaller units for having
a proper observation of research express in a detailed way. There would be a total of five
significant chapter within the study, which would be described as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction:
This is the primary chapter and it would be mostly used for defining the undertaking
topic including the reason behind the topic to be chosen for this particular research paper.
Next, it would describe the reason that blockchain technology and food wastage detection is
synchronised together. This would be used for identification of the aims of the research,
objectives of the research, discussing the research questions that also includes the research
hypothesis, which is being utilised for directing the complete study. It would be used for
explaining all the work of research that has been going on for this particular dissertation.
Chapter 2: Literature Review:
This is the second chapter of the research paper. It would comprise of the literature
review that is being conducted with the help of the past concepts and theories developed by
different researchers who have researched about the same topic previously. This would also
be used to identify any barriers that the previous researchers have faced during the
progression of this research based on blockchain technology used for the analysis of food
wastage in United Kingdom. This chapter would also critically analyse the various barriers
that the researchers are faced before and this would determine the food production and food
manufacturing industry within the United Kingdom.

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology:
This is the third chapter in this dissertation would be comprised of the research
methodology that will enhance a detailed procedure and technique with a detailed idea about
the methodology that has been used for the conduction of this particular study. this should
also be identified for the appropriate process utilised in the research methods and if they have
been justified for gathering all the relevant information for collection of data and analysing
them.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation:
This is the fourth chapter in the dissertation and normally analyses all the information
that has been gathered from conducting the collection of data from primary and secondary
sources over the various sources and presenting them by making use of statistical tools. The
process performed by data analysis and their discussion in this chapter would help the person
going to this research to have a detailed analysis conducted over the topic of research and
thus provide a clear idea about the statistical tools that has been utilised along with the data
representation. This chapter would also validate the utilisation of the hypothesis and how it
has been determined within the analysis of the gathered data.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations:
This chapter is based on the discussion over conclusion and recommendations over
the interdigitation, which would help in forming a linkage in all the analysis and defined
objective that had been previously done in the introduction chapter. This would help the
analyst to perform a brief conclusion over the entire area of study and thus taking full support
of the data that would be obtained from the portion of analysis and also from the previous
chapters. Based on concluding, it can be discussed that there would be some kind of