IBM Food Trust Blockchain Is Being Used to Track Lettuce: Find Out How
“Blockchain technology has the potential to be transformational for us,” said CIO of Albertsons Companies, Anuj Dhanda.
Why do you need to know this though? Well, Albertsons Companies is a popular United States food and drug chain and they have recently become the latest client retailer of IBM’s Food Trust blockchain platform.
In a press release dated April 11th, the company stated that they are going to be using the platform to track the supply chain for romaine lettuce. Operating across 2,300 stores in the US, it is safe to say that they run a large scale operation.
The Food Trust platform uses blockchain technology to verify the authenticity of food products. Since its launch back in October 2018, the platform has done really good work. It has incorporated more than 80 clients and is continuing their expansion with full determination.
The platform was first tested in 2016 with Walmart in China, and other food giants such as Nestle came onboard soon after. The Food Trust platform is just one of the multiple blockchain-focused solutions that IBM has been developing in recent years.
Food safety is a major issue in the market right now, which is flooded with counterfeits. The platform will initially be used just for tracking lettuce by Albertsons, but they soon plan to branch out to other products. There are over five million food products which now use blockchain technology as part of their delivery process.
Dhanda further commented:
“Food safety is a very significant step. In addition, the provenance of the products enabled by blockchain — the ability to track every move from the farm to the customer’s basket — can be very empowering for our customers.”
After the outbreak in the U.S. of the E-coli contamination of romaine lettuce, this product was being treated with skepticism. A technology like blockchain could help assuage the concerns that people might raise regarding this product.
Most outbreaks like these could be prevented if blockchain technology is adopted on a much larger scale.