IBM follows delivery lettuce with blockchain

IBM and American supermarket Albertsons will work together to see if they can improve the safety of sandwiches and salads, by launching a program that follows roman lettuce via blockchain technology. Roman lettuce from various places was found to contain the E. coli bacterium last year.

A blockchain is a database of data that uses cryptography and a gigantic distribution to guarantee the accuracy of data after it has been stored. The technology can be used to verify and track transactions or items as they travel through the supply chain. Essential data such as the origin, date and time of the packaging and temperatures can also be stored.

Albertsons will now use the blockchain-based IBM Food Trust network to track large quantities of roman lettuce from farm to shelf. IBM Food Trust was rolled out last year and has to connect the entire food industry. The network must ensure better food safety, freshness, sustainability and less food waste.

The system allows Albertsons to monitor the conditions of complete heads of lettuce from harvest to packing. If a shipment is found to be contaminated, other harvests from the same facility can be quickly removed from the supply chain and tested, or removed from the store.

Pilot

The supermarket, which has nearly 2,300 stores in the United States, is starting a Food Trust pilot by following the roman lettuce from one of its distribution centres. Once the implementation is complete and tested, the company expects to expand the project to include other food categories. The obstacles that can be overcome with the network can also occur with other products.

IBM Food Trust’s technology is already being used to make the farm and vendor supply chain safer and more transparent. The technology has been expanded to more than fifty brands since last year.