IBM Launches Blockchain Food Tracking Network

IBM announced the launch of its blockchain-based tracking program Food Trust yesterday, partnering with grocers the world over.

Co/zXzVQjf8SK. - IBM October 8, 2018.Now, more large-scale partnerships and availability to anyone in the food industry looking to use it will expand the reach of IBM's program globally.

French grocery retailer Carrefour, which has 12,000 stores spread across 33 countries, announced a partnership with IBM and intent to implement Food Trust.

"Being a founding member of IBM Food Trust platform is a great opportunity for Carrefour to strongly accelerate and widen the integration of blockchain technology to our products in order to provide our clients with safe and undoubted traceability."

Food suppliers BeefChain, Smithfield, and Dennick Fruit Source have also agreed to be founding members of the Food Trust system.

"The currency of trust today is transparency and achieving it in the area of food safety happens when responsibility is shared," Senior VP for IBM Global Platforms and Blockchain Bridget van Kralingen said in an interview with Forbes.

Overcoming Barriers, Imparting BenefitIBM says their Food Trust platform overcomes the critical barriers to implementing a blockchain-based system at a global scale.

Food Trust can also be used for more pragmatic efforts, like finding bad food that needs to be recalled and getting it off the shelves by knowing exactly where it went.

Technology companies like 3M and Centricity are helping on the data side to connect retailers and growers to the food trust system where they live, and get their data on the blockchain.

Food Trust reportedly comes in three modules: tracing, certification, and data entry.