The food industry is turning to the same technology used by virtual currencies to enhance food safety and inventory management by tracking meats and crops from farm to table.
Working with IBM Corp, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing the technology system on mangoes in the US and pork in China.
Blockchain, the underlying technology behind virtual currency bitcoin, is a digital system that allows counterparties to transact using individual codes for goods.
“I see a lot of potential to create what I call a digital and transparent food system,” Walmart vice president of food safety Frank Yiannas said.
The technology enables different parties in the supply chain to share details such as the date an animal was slaughtered or the weather conditions at harvest time. Data can be stored through a photograph on a smartphone that is transmitted onto a dedicated platform.
The system could also counter fraud and mistaken deliveries, champions of the technology say.
“The advantage of blockchain is that the ledger is immediately updated and all the parties have access to the latest information,” said Bill Fearnley Jr, an expert at market intelligence firm IDC Corp.
Supporters of blockchain are especially keen to address salmonella and other food safety problems that could cause health scares that weigh on corporate reputation and damage sales.
The technology allows a more efficient response if there is a problem, enabling companies to more quickly locate the source of an incident, Yiannas said.
He pointed to a 2006 case where it took hundreds of investigators two weeks to identify the source of bad spinach.
However, blockchain “generally takes days to trace,” Yiannas said. “The more accurately you can track food, the better.”
The other great virtue of blockchain is enhanced transparency by letting consumers look up key information on where food comes from, an asset amid growing concerns about genetically-modified crops and artificial ingredients.
That additional transparency could also help promote more desirable practices.
British start-up Provenance used blockchain technology to test tuna caught in Indonesia to help corroborate claims the fish were responsibly caught.
The technology has also been embraced by companies in the jewelry business to fight the sale of so-called “conflict diamonds,” which come from war-torn regions.
“Our goal is to provide transparency at every step of a diamond’s journey and ultimately reshape the way we trade diamonds globally,” said Leanne Kemp, chief executive of Everledger, a British company that tracks diamonds from the mines to jewelry stores.
However, to completely function as a system, all the parties need to participate, Fearnley said.
Danish shipping giant Maersk Line estimates the technology could save billions of US dollars by eliminating fraud and incorrect deliveries. It is testing the technology with container ships between Kenya and the Netherlands.
However, the transition will require investment. A refrigerated product raised in Africa and shipped to Europe requires at least 30 people with about 200 interactions among parties, including customs, taxes and food safety oversight.
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