Sowing Semantics, Reaping Interoperability: WATSON Ontology Extensions for Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chain Traceability

Transparency and efficiency in end-to-end food supply chains require structured, interoperable data representations. In this work, we employ and extend existing Farm-to-Fork ontologies to model the key stages of the food supply chain, including processing, packaging, storage, transportation, and distribution. The approach reuses Smart Applications Reference Ontology for Agriculture (SAREF4Agri) and Agricultural Information Model (AIM) ontologies, with focused extension to cover process steps and system interactions. Logical consistency is ensured through HermiT reasoning, verifying structural integrity and inferencing capabilities. Additionally, a JavaScript Object Notation – Linked Data (JSON-LD) Application Programming Interface (API) interface facilitates real-time querying, data retrieval, and integration with external applications and services. A case study on extra virgin olive oil production demonstrates the ontology’s ability to capture end-to-end traceability, linking final products to processing conditions, storage environments, and agricultural origins.