From Blockchain to Food Trazabiliity
From a Question About Trust to Food Traceability
FoodTraze didn't begin as a finished product. It started with a question could technology help make the journey of food more transparent and traceable?
Can Technology Make the Journey of Food Traceable?
Before FoodTraze became a product, there was a simple question: Could technology connect the many stages of the food journey and make it more transparent? The first step wasn’t building a product. It was understanding the question.
What should be recorded?
What information needs to be captured at each stage of the journey?
Who should access it?
How should different participants interact with the information?
How can the information be trusted?
How can the system maintain a reliable record of the journey?
We Didn't Start With a Product Roadmap
The exploration started with a question: Could emerging technology reshape traceability? That led us to explore blockchain and its potential role in real-world food traceability.
Question
Defining the inquiry, identifying the problem statement.
Exploration
Initial brainstorming, hypotheses, and early prototyping.
Research
Structured data analysis, experimentation, & validated findings.
We Started With Research Not a Roadmap
We explored blockchain beyond the technology itself—understanding how it could connect organisations, product data, batches, and supply-chain stages within a traceability system.
Finding the Technology Behind the Idea
The exploration led to Hyperledger Fabric as the blockchain layer for FoodTraze. The technology stack evolved around blockchain, APIs, web applications, mobile applications and supporting data infrastructure.
Before the Product There Were Experiments
The product evolved through experimentation. Different parts of the traceability problem had to be understood, tested and connected before they could become part of a complete system.
Product Traceability
How should the journey of a product be represented?
Batch Tracking
How can each batch be followed from source to shelf?
Digital Identity
How can every product carry an identity of its own?
QR Experience
How can one scan reveal the whole journey?
Location
Where did each step of the journey take place?
Technology Was Only One Part of the Problem
Building the technology was one challenge. Understanding how it should work in the real world was another.

Technology
Designing the right technical model for traceability.

Data
Understanding what information needs to be captured and connected.

Real-World Processes
Making the technology fit the actual journey of a product.
Research Started Becoming a System
Once the core ideas became clearer, the work moved from experimentation into engineering. Architecture had to be designed. APIs had to be built. Interfaces had to be developed. Mobile experiences had to connect with the platform. Traceability logic had to work as a complete system.






The Experiment Became FoodTraze
What started as an exploration into blockchain and traceability evolved into a working platform. FoodTraze brings together traceability technology, web and mobile applications, QR capabilities, location services and supporting data infrastructure.
One Product One Connected Journey.
FoodTraze connects the different stages involved in the journey of a product.






A Technology Experiment Had to Become Useful Beyond the Lab
The next step was taking what had been researched and built into real-world contexts. FoodTraze was demonstrated and showcased through food, agriculture and processing industry events, creating opportunities to understand how the technology could be applied in different environments.





The Product Wasn't the Only Outcome.
The FoodTraze journey also changed how we think about technology exploration.




The Story Doesn't End With the Product.
Food traceability keeps opening new questions—across industries, data, integrations and technologies. One discovery becomes the starting point for the next.

Every Discovery Has a Story.
FoodTraze is one journey inside Picco Labs. Explore the other questions, experiments and technologies we are working on.



The Next Product May Begin With a Question
We don't always know where an idea will lead.
That's exactly why we explore it.






