The GoGo Chicken tracker, which fits around the animal's leg, monitors the chicken's environment, what it eats and how much it exercises. The information is logged in real-time using blockchain and will soon be available to consumers via a dedicated app.

ZhongAn Online, which provides insurance for the agriculture industry, has developed the device both for consumer reassurance and also to help prevent food safety issues.

Over 100,000 chickens are already fitted with a sensor, with the company aiming to supply 2,500 Chinese farms by 2020.

This technology addresses growing concerns around food sustainability and animal welfare, especially within the ranks of increasingly influential Gen Z consumer cohorts (see The Post-Vegan Opportunity, publishing on 6 June). It also works towards building better trust between consumers and the food industry – in 2018, only 33% of US consumers trusted and had confidence in the safety of the food they ate and the honesty of food providers (The Centre For Food Integrity, 2018).

For an earlier example of how blockchain is being used to monitor multiple aspects of the food system, read Blockchain Influences Coffee Supply and Selling New Foodways.