# Emerging Perspectives of Blockchains in Food Supply Chain Traceability Based on Patent Analysis
## 3 Results
### Modeling of Portfolio Technology Space Based on the LDA
This indicates that classified patents, as being on topic A, are related to data processing systems that support administration, management, and commerce in a specific business sector, which, in this study, is the food sector. The structure of the words most frequently occurring in topic A (Table 2) points out that the patents assigned to topic A are related to tracing and tracking of quality and safety of food products and production processes on their way to consumers. Patents on topic A are mainly oriented to the technical application of blockchain technology (CN114511333A, CN114722117A, US20220198446A1), in combination with the different labeling solutions of QR code (CN105868995), two-dimensional labels (CN108681843A, US20220230134A1), dot-matrix labels (US20200279365A1), DNA tags (US20190285602A1), RFID (CN208400175U, US20220230134A1), NFC (CN105868995A), and different configurations (EP2374017B1). The technical part of topic A includes patents describing the collection of data (IN202011040078A, EP3891501A4). Figure 6: Frequencies of occurrence of the twenty most frequent keywords by topics. Patents within topic A also include blockchain applications for food safety data collection and tracing (CN114722117A) in different industry sectors, such as the grain and oil sectors (CN114386992A) or the meat industry, with the application of networks of sensors for data collection (CN105868995A), including monitoring from stable to table (CN208077495U), and structuring of data according to HACCP (CN109657996A) principles. Some patents involve decision-making modules that, based on input data, can  
\begin{table} \begin{tabular}{c} Data processing \\ systems: \\ administration, \\ management \\ \end{tabular}  \\  & & & & & \\  & & & &  
estimate \"pollution score\" (US11282023B2) or even recall food products from the market (US20220215353A1). Some patents on topic A are dedicated to the provision of information to consumers, including information about products collected in the food chain (WO2022140465A1, US20210366586A1) or information about prepared meals (EP3899831A1). Based on the provided information, Topic A is labeled as BC-supported tracing and tracking in FSCs. Topic B: The IPC codes most frequently assigned to patents from on Topic B (Table 2) are G06Q10 (Data processing systems: administration, management), G06F16 (Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific applications), and G06Q50 (Systems or methods specially adapted for a specific business sector). Based on this information, it is obvious that, for topic B, the patents related to data processing systems supporting administration and management in FSCs with digital data processing equipment, systems, or methods are included. The structure of words most frequently used in the patent abstract, in the case of patents assigned topic B, indicates that, in these patents, the issues of connecting, detecting, improving, predicting, or supporting of operations in FSCs are treated on the level of the enterprise, storage, cabinet, meal, or cell (Table 2). Based on this information, it seems that patents assigned topic B are most probably related to novel equipment, methods, or systems through which detection, prediction, improvement, or other operations at different levels in FSCs is achieved. Revision of patents on topic B reveals that these patents focus on the description of new apparatus, devices, or methods that can be used for different purposes in different phases of a FSC. New devices and methods described in topic B are: pathogen sampling device (CN114190325A), conversion conveying device (CN216970928U), quality safety sampling and inspection device (CN113552297A), temperature and humidity detection alarm device (CN110542452A), food supply chain hazard prediction method and device (CN113378383A), and improvement of Byzantine consensus method based on food supply chain (CN112330238A). Some patents also deal with new devices for food distribution (CN206451226U, CN103956001B).