Nestle has joined to the list of companies to take steps towards blockchain adoption. the company is currently developing an initiative that aims to track inputs from the ingredient producers to the supermarkets.
Food Trust, a consortium of 10 companies, developed utilizing IBM blockchain technology and led by Walmart, will lead this initiative, tracking up to 1 million supplies across 50 different categories. Chris Tyas, global head of Nestlé’s supply chain, commented that,
“although we are competitors, we will work together to ensure the trust of our customers.”
As reported by Wall Street Journal, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed interest in this project and had already met with Walmart in order to discuss the matter. Categorizing the blockchain technology as “promising”, the commissioner of foods and veterinary medicine of the FDA, Stephen Otroff explained,
“During the recent crisis of the romaine lettuce, we have put too much effort to accumulate information, but it is a process of many days. With the blockchain, we can achieve that in a matter of seconds.”
According to the Washington Post, the incident regarding romaine lettuce would have caused 5 deaths and the hospitalization of more than 200 people in March of this year. After months of research, in June of this year, the FDA would have managed to trace the incident to the water of a canal in Arizona. However according to Food Trust, by using the blockchain the tracking process would have reduced the process to seconds.
According to Tyas,
“People want to know exactly where the ingredients of the food they give their babies come from. We want to make people trust these products.”
A pilot test is already being run by Nestle by tracking canned pumpkins through Food Trust’s network, and it is exponentially simplifying the tracking process. For the next tests, they plan to work together with producers and processors of sweet potato, apple and pumpkins for their mixtures of baby purees.
