"This German company has developed the NMR test, which they say can distinguish sugars from these other plants ... it's a technology-driven response to the problem of increasing adulteration in honey, but other anti-fraud technologies could be used."

The global cost of food fraud has been estimated at more than $50 billion annually, according to PwC.

Blockchain use case

Tackling supply chain issues is one of the most commonly cited benefits of blockchain technology, and Professor Lowe said it could have a meaningful impact on the cost of food fraud.

He said companies should be investing in anti-fraud technologies, like blockchain, tracers, biomarkers and packaging sensors.

Blockchain, combined with new tracer and security technologies, could be used to prevent problems like Australia's ongoing fake honey scandal. Shutterstock

"Blockchain is fine for showing an unbroken chain of custody for a product along a supply chain, revealing where something has been ... but you want to use it with a tracer, which is something introduced like a protein that can be detected at low concentrations, or a biomarker of the product itself," he said.

"In honey, pollen is present in the plant and so you can analyse that and see if it comes from Australia or south-east Asia."


ASX tech provider

Israeli start-up Security Matters, which is set to list on the ASX, is developing this kind of technology, creating chemical-based hidden barcodes that permanently mark any object in solid, liquid or gas form.

Security Matters chief executive Haggai Alon said this would reveal if honey had been adulterated.

Some of the Allowrie Mixed Blossom Honey batches are alleged to have been adulterated. Woolworths website

"Every part of the product in the chain will have been marked and verified by the time it reaches the end customer. This creates full liability to each of the individual players," he said.

Other organisations developing blockchain solutions for the supply chain include Everledger and earlier this year the World Wildlife Fund in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji partnered with US company ConsenSys and TraSeable to use blockchain to stamp out illegal fishing and slave labour in the tuna fishing industry.

Professor Lowe said there was increasing demand from consumers for brands to be transparent.

"They're paying money for a product and that's what they want, and there are issues around sustainable sourcing. So long as [the products] are the same price, that will drive change," he said.