For release | 23 November 2020
Digital Sandwich open platform blockchain project receives £4m development support from UKRI
The Digital Sandwich consortium are delighted to announce the award of £4m from the UKRI ISCF Manufacturing Made Smarter challenge. The Digital Sandwich concept was selected from a highly competitive field of entries.
Uniquely among developing blockchain technology initiatives, the Digital Sandwich is an open platform, aimed at producing an inclusive, democratic data resource rather than a proprietary ‘tunnel’ of data available in its compete form only to the hosting organisation.
The project aims to create the ‘Digital Sandwich’, the world’s first national and ‘open’ software platform: a major piece of software that smaller programmes can operate within. Food and drinks businesses can connect online using these programmes to share valuable data - increasing productivity, improving cashflow, boosting food quality, food safety, and reducing waste within the supply chain.
This project exploits new AI, blockchain and zero trust networking technologies to establish a greatly enhanced level of traceability of ingredients in the production of commercial, prepacked sandwiches.
The principles established in developing the new technology are intended to be both scalable to the entire food industry, and adaptable to include other industries with similar resourcing patterns.
Most importantly of all, the focus of the project will be on ensuring that the technology will be accessible to all participants in the resource chain, right down to the smallest producer, with no-one locked out by the requirement for major investment.
Comment from key partners
Raynor Foods, an award-winning UK sandwich supplier, is leading the project.
“The project will open up this new technology to SMEs in the food sector, bringing the benefits of securely sharing information up and down the supply chain to the largest single sector of companies (Food SMEs). This technology will be a massive benefit for the companies concerned and for UK plc.”
Matt Raynor, Chair of Raynor Foods
"The technology we are building together has the capacity to significantly improve food safety within the UK while improving the profitability of companies in the £56bn prepared foods industry within the UK."
Scott Nelson, Chairman and CEO, Sweetbridge.
"The Digital Sandwich programme will spur innovation in manufacturing and food safety by creating a single integrated digitized food supply chain, and NetFoundry is honoured to be the lead supplier of Zero Trust Networking for this digital platform."
Philip Griffiths, Head of Business and Partnerships, EMEA, NetFoundry.
Full details of the project aims and the partners involved can be found at: www.digitalsandwich.co.uk
Note for editors:
The project brings together an expert group of data management, supply chain and food industry experts. Responsibilities for individual facets of the programme are distributed across the partner organisations. We will be happy to direct enquiries to the most relevant spokesperson.
Please contact us at project.information@digitalsandwich.co.uk.