World's Second-Largest Grocer Joins IBM Food Trust Blockchain

Albertsons Companies, the world's second-largest supermarket company by sales, has joined IBM's Food Trust blockchain, a digital system for tracking and tracing food between retailers and suppliers.

Albertsons' addition brings the total number of brands involved in Food Trust to over 80.

Arguably the jewel in the IBM Blockchain Platform crown, Food Trust, which went into live production in October of last year, tackles a critical problem in the commercial food chain: the ability to rapidly pinpoint a dodgy batch of produce and surgically remove those tainted goods from circulation so that retailers don't have to empty their shelves of every item in the affected category, be that lettuce, spinach, beef, etc.

Most recently Food Trust signed up European supermarket giant Carrefour, to join other food business giants such as Walmart, Nestle, Dole Food, Tyson Foods, Kroger and Unilever.

This can now be done in seconds flat, said Suzanne Livingston, offering director for IBM Food Trust.

Having been a key platform partner to IBM Food Trust, Walmart last year issued a mandate.

Nanavati said that Albertsons has seen some of its suppliers coming forward and asking to be involved in Food Trust.

Looking beyond food safety, Albertsons is also exploring how blockchain can assure consumers of the provenance of its extensive "Own Brands" portfolio, worth about $11bn per annum.

It's notable that IBM seems to have had a relatively smooth ride getting competing firms to join the Food Trust blockchain.

So is the food production and supply chain industry more convivial?