[Logistics Companies Tackling the Nuclear Contamination Crisis: A Fleeting Glimpse or Getting to the Root of the Problem?]

The “three-pronged approach” drives logistics enterprises to achieve traceability.

Recently, Japan has begun discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, a process that is expected to continue into the future. 30 years. This practice has sparked intense controversy within the international community. I’ve noticed that even the prestigious journal Nature recently published a paper titled “Is Fukushima wastewater release safe? What the science says.” Its main conclusion is that the radiation in the water will be diluted to virtually undetectable levels. However, some scientists remain skeptical, arguing that radioactive elements could accumulate within the food web and pose potential risks to ecosystems. Similarly, China’s General Administration of Customs recently decided to impose a comprehensive ban on imports of Japanese seafood. So, what impacts will the discharge of nuclear wastewater have on supply chains and logistics? The most immediate effect is… When making purchases, consumers place greater emphasis on origin information and on the safety of food distribution and logistics. Traceability systems are among the most effective tools for ensuring and monitoring product and food safety. Therefore, traceability across all stages of the supply chain should not be superficial or merely skin‑deep; it must delve into the root causes and track products back to their origins.        

Traceability encompasses a product’s raw materials, constituent ingredients, and all stages of production, processing, and distribution, while also enabling the tracking and retrieval of logistics information. At present, the logistics traceability sector is characterized by low market concentration and a lengthy industry value chain. Meanwhile, factors such as the COVID‑19 pandemic, the misuse of food additives, and global nuclear contamination have posed both challenges and opportunities for traceability efforts. Emerging technologies—such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain—provide robust support for advancing logistics traceability technologies and systems. In light of this, how major logistics enterprises can establish secure traceability systems to enable end-to-end tracking across the entire supply chain—covering raw materials, production and processing, warehousing and logistics, and market distribution—is an urgent and highly worthwhile area for research. This paper outlines the trends, key technologies, and practical applications of logistics traceability, with the aim of providing a reference for logistics companies.

01   The journey of logistics traceability, from its inception and evolution to its transformative leap.   

The fundamental components of a logistics traceability system are product tracking and identification, supply-chain information collection and management, and data integration along with query and analytical capabilities. These elements are closely linked to information technology and are all underpinned by the integrated application of various IT technologies. The following summarizes the evolution of logistics traceability systems:      

Initial stage: In the 1990s, logistics traceability systems were first introduced and gradually established by the European Union in response to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, serving as a quality and safety assurance measure in the food industry. At that time, traceability systems—whether paper-based or electronic—were largely rudimentary information‑recording systems confined to a single stage of the process.

Development stage: Starting in 2008, The development of IoT technologies has laid the foundation for the efficient exchange of information across all stages—production, processing, logistics, warehousing, and trading—and has provided the technical support needed to build a logistics traceability system capable of real-time data transmission. It can be seen that using barcodes, Automatic identification technologies, exemplified by RFID, play a crucial role in marking traceable products, while information‑perception technologies, typified by wireless sensor networks, provide robust support for the rapid collection and real-time monitoring of data across all stages of the logistics chain, thereby fostering the widespread adoption of digital logistics traceability systems.

Transformation Stage: At this stage, the widespread implementation of logistics traceability systems faces a range of challenges, including fragmented content, difficulties in data sharing, numerous uncertainties, and an inability to ensure data authenticity, among others. The development of next-generation information technologies—such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain—has provided the technological foundation for addressing the challenges in logistics traceability, ushering traceability systems into a transformative phase.

02   Incompatible, immature, incomplete, The “three nos” have resulted in relatively slow progress in logistics traceability.

China’s logistics traceability system has been in place for less than In the past 20 years, many issues have persisted throughout the development process.

Incompatible traceability system architecture: The traceability systems across different stages fail to share information and are incompatible with one another, resulting in low overall operational efficiency. Moreover, a single traceability system often cannot cover the entire product‑tracking process, leading to fragmented traceability data and the wastage of valuable information.    

Information management technology is immature: The establishment of a logistics traceability system involves multiple stages, including production, processing, distribution, retail, and regulatory oversight. Each link must meticulously record product information and maintain corresponding databases, while also managing data on operators, testing results, and enforcement activities. At present, information recording remains inconsistent and is susceptible to tampering.

Incomplete data collection: Currently, logistics traceability is primarily built around processing, storage, and sales, with insufficient data collection at critical stages such as agricultural cultivation and factory production. When information‑gathering and recording in the traceability process encounter issues, the entire traceability chain can be compromised.

03   None of the widely used technologies can hold a candle to it.

At present, the most widely used and mature logistics traceability systems rely primarily on tagging, positioning technologies, and sensing and transmission techniques. At every stage of the product‑logistics chain, items are tagged to record critical information, which is then stored in a cloud‑based platform. To retrieve product‑related data, the tags must be scanned, enabling precise access to traceability information. The key technologies employed include the following four:      

( 1) Tagging Technology: There are three main types of labeling technologies currently available on the market. : Barcode technology, QR code technology, and RFID technology. Barcodes are graphical symbols composed of black and white bars of varying widths arranged according to a specific encoding scheme, renowned for their fast read/write speeds, high reliability, and low cost. QR codes are also graphical symbols encoded according to a defined scheme, capable of storing a greater volume and variety of information. RFID technology is a radio‑frequency identification method that uses wireless communication to capture data; unlike QR codes and barcodes, RFID systems identify information on RFID tags via radio signals.

( 2) GPS positioning technology: Radio navigation and positioning, which is satellite-based, boasts high speed, all‑weather operability, automation, and high accuracy, and has become a foundational technology for logistics traceability.

( 3) Sensor Technology: It is a technology that converts the measured object into an electronic signal—easily transmissible and processable—according to specific principles, such as sensors used to detect temperature and humidity.

  ( 4) GPRS transmission technology: General Packet Radio Service technology can utilize GPRS wireless transmission technology establishes a long-distance data transmission platform.

04   The “three-pronged approach” drives logistics enterprises to achieve traceability.

Artificial intelligence reduces the degree of supply-chain fragmentation in logistics traceability: The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technologies can enhance the granularity of logistics traceability. Commodity and food supply chains involve multiple stages, require multi‑party collaboration, and exhibit multidimensional characteristics. Moreover, the fragmentation and recombination of individual traceability nodes are common occurrences throughout the supply chain, often leading to breaks in the traceability chain. AI provides the technical foundation to address these disruptions: across supply chains, it can predict the information‑flow pathways at each traceability stage and, leveraging deep learning and other advanced techniques, develop methods for compensating for missing data, thereby reducing the frequency and severity of traceability interruptions.  

Big data enhances logistics’ traceability, forecasting, and early-warning capabilities: Predictive analytics and early warning systems are critical for ensuring the quality and safety of products in logistics traceability systems. Traditional forecasting relies on random sampling and logical reasoning, whereas big‑data‑driven prediction enables highly accurate forecasts. On the one hand, it allows the development of predictive models that account for environmental changes, such as weather fluctuations and unexpected events. On the other hand, by establishing a big‑data hub tailored to key processes like inventory management and market supply‑demand analysis, organizations can comprehensively monitor and manage all relevant information within the logistics traceability ecosystem, shifting from reactive detection to proactive risk assessment.

Blockchain enhances the trustworthiness of end-to-end traceability: Logistics traceability systems span vast temporal and spatial scales, involve numerous dispersed stakeholders, and often lack robust mechanisms for data collection, leading to information opacity and low credibility of traceability data. Blockchain technology, with its features of distributed ledger, decentralization, collective maintenance, and consensus-based trust, has been shown to offer inherent technical advantages in addressing the current challenges of traceability system reliability. Walmart and… Kroger was among the first companies to integrate blockchain into supply-chain traceability, initially applying it to Chinese pork and Mexican mangoes. The results showed that, with blockchain technology, verifying the entire end-to-end traceability record for food products can be completed in just a few seconds. In recent years, domestic logistics firms such as SF Express and Cainiao have also piloted blockchain‑based traceability systems.

05   Tracing and detection technologies defeat nuclear contamination.

Although traditional physical traceability methods are intuitive, they often lead to issues such as label loss, recording errors, and incomplete information, making it impossible to obtain accurate origin data for products. Therefore, Chemical methods can be used to identify the origin of products, and traceability systems enable the tracking of the sources of harmful substances such as radioactive contaminants, food additives, and heavy metals in food. Currently, commonly used traceability detection techniques include stable isotope analysis, near-infrared spectroscopy, and genetic fragment analysis, among others. For example, stable isotope tracing analysis has been recognized in recent years as an effective method for food traceability. The stable isotope ratios in plants and animals are key indicators of their growth environments; these ratios vary with latitude, climate, geographic location, plant species, and animal husbandry practices. Moreover, the stable isotope ratios in agricultural products from different regions also differ, enabling the determination of a product’s true origin based on this characteristic.

06   Conclusion

From source to end‑point, from farm to table, the information flows across all stages of logistics traceability form a complex, collaboratively coordinated network involving multiple stakeholders. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain each possess distinct characteristics and offer specific advantages in addressing logistics traceability challenges; however, when tackling the deeper‑level issues confronting traceability systems, logistics enterprises should place greater emphasis on integrating these diverse technologies.

Finally, let me quote a line from the French writer Victor Hugo: “Nature is a kind mother, yet also a ruthless butcher!”