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Tatoiu, Roxana Elena (2025) Can Blockchain Meet Irish Consumers’ Increasing Demands for Food Safety, Sustainability, and Ethical Sourcing? Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate whether blockchain can meet Irish consumers growing demands for transparency, sustainability, and ethical sourcing in the food supply chain. Blockchain has emerged as a potential tool for enhancing trust in the food supply chain due to its potential to offer greater transparency, traceability, and food safety to reduce modern supply chains vulnerabilities such as food fraud, contamination, and health concerns. The research employed a quantitative research design using an online survey that was distributed through social media to Irish consumers who engage actively in food purchasing and gathered 110 valid responses. The questions were divided into four different themes, each related to a different hypothesis that was relevant to answering the research question.
The findings revealed useful insights about Irish consumers’ attitudes towards blockchain potential in the food supply chain. Hypothesis one and two rejected the null hypothesis, as there was a statistically significant positive relationship between blockchain awareness among Irish consumers and its perceived usefulness for enhancing transparency in the food supply chain, as well as consumers who value sustainability and ethical sourcing, who are more likely to pay a premium for food products if blockchain guarantees their ethical sourcing. While hypotheses three and four revealed that there is not a significant relationship between blockchain awareness levels among Irish consumers and their perception of it as a main barrier to adoption, nor between Irish consumers trust and their opinion on whether blockchain is more necessary for imported products, failing to reject the null hypothesis and challenging this researcher’s assumption that Irish consumers would see blockchain as unnecessary for locally produced food.
Overall, despite moderate awareness of blockchain potential in food supply chains, the results indicated that Irish consumers are open to technologies like blockchain that can enhance food safety, transparency, traceability, sustainability and ethical sourcing in the food supply chain. This study concludes that while blockchain can meet evolving consumers demands, there are many concerns and potential barriers to adoption that must be addressed before its implementation. Its success lies in how well its benefits are communicated and adapted to local realities.
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