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Mastercard Blockchain to Trace Produce for the Largest American Food Group

Mastercard is collaborating with Envisible, a supply-chain company, to allow the traceability of the origin of food products via Mastercard’s blockchain-based Provenance Solution.

With over 100 blockchain patents filed globally, Mastercard has ranked in the top 3 among top blockchain innovators. Mastercard’s Provenance Solution is industry-agnostic and allows brands to provide record product journeys to contribute to consumer confidence, trust, and awareness. The Provenance Solution also provides governance capabilities for supply chain networks.

Leading US retail food group, Topco Associates LLC will be testing Envisible’s Wholechain traceability system to allow the traceability of produce, meat, and seafood.

Dan Glei, Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing of Food City, under the Topco corporation said: “Using Envisible Wholechain, powered by Mastercard, our grocers will be able to stock shelves with confidence and also be able to pinpoint issues in the food chain during any unfortunate events such as recalls.”

Mark Kaplan, Partner at Envisible, stated that the sheer volume of global trade makes it difficult to ensure the journey and authenticity of the food.

He added: “We’re excited that Mastercard shares our vision and is driving consumer trust by bringing its significant expertise in using technology at scale with commercial-grade processing speeds, data flexibility and privacy, and security standards to an area that has previously been considerably opaque.”

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How Can Blockchain Be Used to Save $31 Billion in Costs in the Food Industry?

Blockchain, along with the internet of things (IoT) trackers and sensors, could reduce costs for retailers. New data from Juniper research showed that blockchain will be essential to $31 billion in “food fraud savings” by 2024 by tracking food across the supply chain.

In the “Blockchain: Key Vertical Opportunities, Trends & Challenges 2019-2030″ report, the research showed that through the streamlining of supply chains, efficient food recall processes and regulatory compliance would help drive down the costs.

Juniper Research said in a statement that the internet of things and blockchain would add “significant value” to those involved in the supply chain, including farmers, retailers, and consumers.

Morgane Kimmich, the research author said: “Today, transparency and efficiency in the food supply chain are limited by opaque data forcing each company to rely on intermediaries and paper-based records.”

“Blockchain and the IoT provide an immutable, shared platform for all actors in the supply chain to track and trace assets; saving time, resources and reducing fraud,” explained Kimmich.

The leading players in the food provenance space using blockchain and IoT solutions include IBM’s Food Trust, SAP’s Track and Trace, Oracle’s Track and Trace and IoT solutions.

Consumers today are more aware of where their food comes from and where it was sourced or produced. Trust has been a big issue when it comes to supply chains.

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IBM’s Blockchain Technology Hand Picked By Coop Italia for Food Traceability

Blockchain technology is continuously being embraced in different sectors, and traceability has emerged to be one of its fundamental selling points.

Coop Italia, the biggest retail chain in Italy, has acknowledged this attribute as it has selected IBM’s blockchain technology to enable its private label brand called Coop Vivi Verde to trace the origin of eggs in its supply chain.

The retailer noted that the solution is founded on a Linux Foundation framework hosted on IBM Cloud, known as Hyperledger Fabric technology.

Blockchain Grants Full Transparency and Visibility

By leveraging on IBM’s blockchain technology, Coop Italia will have full visibility and transparency of the different players taking part in the production chain involving nearly 2 million hens producing at least 200 million eggs annually.

It has been stipulated that these hens adhere to animal welfare standards. As a result, eggs are sourced based on the laid out requirements. Additionally, they have to be certified by two independent third-party bodies, as well as more standards spelled out by Coop Italia.

To access information about the eggs’ journey from farm to store, consumers will be required to scan the QR code found on packages and typing the batch code.

The retailer, therefore, seeks to optimize consumers’ satisfaction levels by deploying blockchain technology and QR codes.

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Blockchain, Our Growing Global Population, and Food Resources

Our population is growing, with data showing over 7 billion people living on Earth. This number is expected to grow further, reaching just under 10 billion in 2050.

Following this expected growth, we must consider what technology, data, and information will need to be handled, making processes more efficient and sustainable to maintain our numbers.

Feeding the planet

Concerns over healthy and safe foods along with healthy living has been a growing change in our society, with documentaries, environmentalists, news reports and celebrities all getting involved. Pushing for a better and cleaner world, with healthy options for everyone. Streamlining the current system from farm to the kitchen will be a huge undertaking, as every item supply chain will need to be improved fighting against spoilage, disease, waste, and safety.

Spoilage alone reduces the global food supply by a staggering third of the total supply, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Currently, the USDA aims to cut this food waste in half by 2030, but with a population increase from 7 billion to 10 billion, and 7 billion to 11.2 billion in 2100, this will need to improve further and with the population in mind.

Blockchain alone is not a superpower, but technology that can track and ensure safety regulations are maintained from point A to B would be a giant step forward in creating timelines and supply chains that run efficiently to help aid spoilage around the world. More and better data can help us create better solutions.

Sharing information on how food is made, its story and the environment will help share and provide how we view the entire process. Understanding and respecting more about our planet and how farmers and fisheries raise and grow animals and other foods would open up awareness for animal cruelty, disease prevention, and spoilage problems.

If we can see exactly how the food industry works, where problems happen along the way and help monitor everything better, it can only help us improve the current system.

On a daily basis, we trust in the food we purchase to be safe and fair, ultimately, we trust in the people and businesses that manage food around the world from farming to transporting to shop window. Blockchain is all about taking away trust, making everything transparent and letting people take charge of their own information.

Forbes writer Raj Rao stated, “In earlier, simpler times, people generally knew who was producing their food, milling their grain, making their cheese or cobbling their shoes. But globalization and international supply chains introduced anonymity and uncertainty to the process.”

Image by Dan Gold via Unsplash