Seafood traceability and quality assurance

Every morning, bright and early at 5:30 am, Sydney Fish Market holds an auction. Here, traders who’ve previously spent time inspecting the catch, bid on the choicest fish on behalf of restaurants and shops right across the state.

Key information of interest to buyers includes when and where the fish was caught, what the fish looks like, how it smells and what kind of shelf life can be expected.

To date, this activity has mostly been in-person, but with Sydney Fish Market determined to expand their reach by taking part of their business online, an interesting research proposition presented itself: Is it possible to provide online buyers with an on-site inspection experience?

Fish being photographed before being given a freshness score — Fish being prepared before an image is taken to determine its freshness score.

Into this challenge stepped a UTS research team, led by Professor Ren Ping Liu from UTS Global Big Data Technologies Centre.

“Our research project started in 2018, when we joined with multiple partners (including the Food Agility CRC, Sydney Fish Market, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Fishermen’s Co-operatives, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Ultimo Digital Technologies and WWF) to identify the most serious issues holding the industry back,” he explains.

“Through this process, the stakeholders identified the lack of information regarding fish origin and quality within supply chains as the most important constraints to innovation and growth.”

To solve these issues, Liu’s team proposed a blockchain enabled fish provenance and quality tracking system (BeFAQT), which they have developed to minimum viable product stage and shows great promise in solving the main logistical challenges facing the industry.

The BeFAQT system includes a blockchain-secured Fisherman App which enables fishermen to capture the time and location of the catch. Image recognition software – called ‘e-eye’ – identifies and records fish species and size to an accuracy of 99% and 98% respectively.

Image of fish inside the light box — Fresh fish is photographed in a light box to ensure image consistency ahead of being given a freshness score.

“This will reduce paperwork for the fishermen and means the catch can be tracked through the supply chain via a smart tag sending information (such as location and temperature) to the cloud in real time,” Liu explains.

“After reaching Sydney Fish Market, the fish will be inspected by both the e-eye and an ‘e-nose’ for freshness assessment which provides online buyers with a visual and smelling inspection experience.”

Once commercialised, Liu says that local, national and perhaps even international buyers will be able to track the catch from the minute it is on the boat and potentially even bid on the fish while still at sea!

“Now we are confident the system is performing as it should, the next steps are to work with a commercial developer to scale the system up. We recently won a NSW Innovation Award, in the Business and Industry Solution section, so the idea is certainly generating interest,” continues Liu.

The BeFAQT system has huge potential. Once successfully commercialised, the developed technologies can be extended throughout the fishing industry in Australia, and potentially exported to other countries, benefitting the entire fishing industry.

— Bryan Skepper, Chair of NSW Seafood Industry Council

Bryan Skepper, Chair of NSW Seafood Industry Council, is one of those whose interest has been peaked. “The BeFAQT system has huge potential. Once successfully commercialised, the developed technologies can be extended throughout the fishing industry in Australia, and potentially exported to other countries, benefiting the entire fishing industry,” he says.