Today food traceability firm TE-FOOD announced that Swiss supermarket Migros will implement its blockchain solution for fruits and vegetables. The retailer is the biggest supermarket and private employer in Switzerland. It hopes to optimize its supply chain, reducing costs and food waste.
While TE-FOOD is not a blockchain company, it offers blockchain solutions to clients like Migros. This particular project focuses on perishable foods intending to increase efficiency in an often outdated industry.
Today’s release claims that Migros has already standardized some legacy tracking data from fresh food suppliers. The plan is to store the information on TE-FOOD’s HyperLedger-based FoodChain. This blockchain solution will allow Migros to analyze immutable and easily audited tracking data.
Though for now, the data is only going to be used for internal insights. This breaks the mold of many blockchain traceability projects which aim to bring transparency to the customer.
TE-FOOD’s Marton Ven wrote: “Although a growing number of food companies are launching traceability projects, many of them focus only on the marketing advantages by providing transparent food information to their consumers. However, food traceability can provide more value from easier product recalls to improved supply chain control.”
Indeed, the firm is also working with retailer Auchan for the pig farming supply chain and produced a blockchain tracked beer with multiple Canadian partners. It offered free traceability services to help reduce disease in livestock last year when the deadly African Swine Fever had spread to China.
Migros joins the likes of Walmart, Albertsons, and French supermarket Carrefour in blockchain initiatives. Just today, it was announced that Whole Foods Market will begin stocking olive oil tracked with a blockchain.
