Blockchain-Based Traceability as a Foundational Enabler of Trust, Safety, and Sustainability in Modern Production Systems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analytical Synthesis

Modern production systems across agriculture, biomedicine, materials science, and engineering are increasingly challenged by fragmented supply chains, declining consumer trust, environmental pressures, and recurring safety failures. These challenges have intensified the demand for transparent, reliable, and sustainable frameworks capable of ensuring product integrity across complex value chains. Drawing on evidence synthesized from systematic reviews and meta-analytical studies, this work situates blockchain-based traceability (BBT) within a broader interdisciplinary landscape that includes food safety governance, natural bioactive compound research, sustainable material development, and bio-inspired design methodologies. In the agricultural sector, repeated food safety crises and the limitations of centralized traceability systems have exposed critical gaps in transparency, data integrity, and rapid response capability. Blockchain technology, characterized by decentralization, immutability, and shared consensus, has emerged as a promising infrastructure to address these deficiencies by enabling end-to-end, tamper-resistant traceability. Parallel challenges in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical research—particularly concerning the sourcing, reproducibility, and safety of natural compounds—further underscore the importance of verifiable data systems. Similarly, sustainability-driven industries such as smart textiles and advanced materials face growing scrutiny over unverifiable environmental claims and lifecycle impacts, reinforcing the need for trusted data governance. Bio-inspired design approaches complement these technological advances by offering systematic, data-driven methods for integrating performance, resilience, and environmental harmony. Collectively, the evidence highlights blockchain-based traceability not as an isolated technological intervention but as a foundational enabler of trust, accountability, and sustainability across diverse sectors. This synthesis provides a conceptual basis for evaluating BBT through systematic review and meta-analysis, supporting its role in future intelligent and sustainable production systems.