Nestlé, the global food giant with a questionable ethical history, announced this week that it has signed a deal with OpenSC, a blockchain platform run by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) which allows consumers to track their food from farm to table. Nestlé claim that this move is part of their “journey towards full transparency” and marks them out as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, food and beverage company to commit themselves to using blockchain technology in this way, joining the likes of Walmart and Carrefour.
Find out where your food comes from! Nestlé will break new ground by piloting open blockchain tech that allows you trace food back to the farm. More here: https://t.co/7CC2ENMFb7 #ResponsibleSourcing *GoodLife pic.twitter.com/GrtDbFHyBC
— Nestlé (@Nestle) July 2, 2019
Milking Blockchain for All It’s Worth
OpenSC was founded by WWF-Australia and The Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures and launched in January of this year, and is one of a growing number of food-based blockchain solutions giving anyone access to independently verifiable supply chain data, including sustainability information. Initially the pilot will involve tracing milk from New Zealand-based farms and producers to Nestlé factories and warehouses in the Middle East, but the technology will be expanded to include palm oil sourced in the Americas at a later date.
Nestlé Ditches IBM
Nestlé has been working with blockchain technology since 2017 when it hooked up with, perhaps unsurprisingly, IBM Food Trust. It seems however that they have now made a shift to OpenSC instead, at least for the initial trial period, with Benjamin Ware, Global Head of Responsible Sourcing, Nestlé S.A., stating:
This open blockchain technology will allow anyone, anywhere in the world to assess our responsible sourcing facts and figures. We believe it is another important step towards the full disclosure of our supply chains announced by Nestlé in February this year, raising the bar for transparency and responsible production globally.
Nestlé’s continued trialing of blockchain technology is good news for the space, and will hopefully attract other big names into the space, should the Swiss company produce some encouraging data from the test.
