Our mission
Food fraud with adulterated honey of low quality is a serious problem for beekeepers, since they have to sell their authentic products for lower prices. The economic damage is estimated at $1 billion. For consumers it is difficult to recognize fraud.
TECHONEY is a EU research project that develops innovative IT solutions to certify authentic honey products along the supply chain and protect quality labels in local and international markets.
Stakeholders participate in our TECHONEY Living Labs to help us create solutions that meet their needs.
Stakeholder Integration
HONEY INNOVATION AND LEARNING COMMUNITY LAB (HILE) involves interested Stakeholders in a participatory design approach.
The STAKEHOLDERS, representing the honey supply chains will be selected and invited for setting up the platform. Once per year the stakeholders will be invited to a session. These annual sessions will include some PARTICIPATORY DYNAMICS and keynote speakers to address some of the hot topics in the supply chain organization. A TOOLKIT OF METHODS, resources, and GOOD PRACTICES for stakeholder interaction will promote a successful multi-stakeholder approach during the project lifetime.
Blockchain Techonology
In recent years, multiple blockchain based food production system have been proposed to offer high level of transparency, traceability, trust and lower level of fraud.
Deploying a blockchain system in the food industry is still at an early stage and facing two main challenges:
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Data privacy of stakeholders in the supply chain
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Scalability due to the increasing number of peers, transactions and channels in blockchain
TECHONEY will investigate how to increase trust among honey supply chain parties to guarantee the honey quality, safety and sustainability.
Characterization of quality of honey
TECHONEY performs a full physical, chemical and sensory characterization of honey sampled from five participating countries in terms of contaminants and microbiological quality.
This analysis supports authentication and traceability and can also detect adulteration with sugar.
Final online event
On 29th October, the project Work Package leaders from WP1-WP4 presented their final results in a webinar with 60 participants, hosted by coordinator Tiziana de Magistris from CITA. Zein Kallas (WP1) spoke about the Living Lab activities, including the selection criteria for stakeholders. Said Ennahli (WP2) explained how Infrared Sprectroscopy can detect adulterated honey by our collection of honey sample "fingerprints". Tiziana de Magistris (WP3) resented the results of her behavioural experiments showing that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for blockchain label in long supply chains. Finally, Hakim Badis, Christop Stahl and Hella Kaffel (WP4) explained the benefits of distributed hyperledger blockchains, Ethereum blockchain, a sharing economy platform, progress on smart IoT beehives for beekeepers.
3rd Annual Meeting in Mersin
In September 2025, the TECHONEY consortium partners met at the University of Mersin, Turkye, to present their works and prepared to finalise the project deliverables. During the second day, the group visited the campus, the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and also the vice rector of Mersin University. A news article about our project was published in the local media. On the third day, the group visited a local beekeeping business that operates 20.000 hives and distributes honey products by e-commerce. It was discussed how the TECHONEY blockchain and IoT could support traceability of their organic honey.
2nd Annual Meeting in Tunis
In 2024, TECHONEY partners came together for the second time to present the progress of each Work Package and to discuss the next steps. The meeting was hosted 2nd-4th May 2024 by INAT (Institute National Agronomique de Tunisie) in Tunis, Tunesia.
1st Annual Meeting in Naples
The first annual meeting was held in Naples, hosted by University of Naples Federico II, situated in the heart of the city's historic center. The partners presented the progress in each Work Package, including Deliverables and Milestones, and coordinated their activities for the second year of the project.
Kick-Off Event in Zaragossa
The project parters have met in Zaragossa for the two-day kick-off event at CITA, presenting the work packages and nominating members for the coordination board.