The US technology giant IBM has officially introduced blockchain network for food tracking named as Food Trust, after a long testing phase of 18 Months, the company said in a press release on.
In the same announcement, the company revealed that another major food retailer, Carrefour, has joined its ecosystem. The French company with more than 12,000 stores in 33 countries tested the blockchain in its own stores. As reported by the IBM press release, Carrefour plans to expand the blockchain technology in 2022 to all its brands around the world.
IBM’s Food Trust was first announced in 2016 as a blockchain solution to connect different parts of the agri-food industry. During the trial, which began in August 2017, the company is working with Nestle SA, McCormick and Co, Dole Food Co., Golden State Foods, Driscoll Inc., Kroger Co, McLane Co., Unilever NV, and Tyson Foods Inc.
According to IBM, retailers and vendors used blockchain-based Food Trust during the testing period, to track millions of individual food product.
The US retailer Walmart was one of the first companies to join IBM to conduct experiments in the region. By 2016, he used the blockchain to identify and remove recalled foods for which customers complained.
Last month, Walmart announced that the suppliers would be asked to set up a farm-to-store control system that will operate on IBM’s Food Trust system.
For IBM, the food industry is just one of many forums in blockchain technology. The US-based company shares the first position with the Chinese online trading company Alibaba in the number of world patents for blockchain. Recently, IBM patented a blockchain-based surveillance system that allegedly helps prevent various types of hacking and security breaches. The adoption of blockchain technology has turned out to be moving towards a positive path with majority of the companies making huge distinction with their contribution.