Nestlé launches another blockchain food tracker, despite ongoing IBM Food Trust participation

Nestlé wants to make its supply chain data accessible to everyone

Food giant Nestlé has launched a blockchain platform that allows consumers to track the journeys made by food they purchase.

The company, which is one of the world’s largest food companies by revenue, is working with OpenSC on the initiative.

OpenSC was founded by WWF-Australia and Boston Consulting Digital Ventures, in an effort to provide worldwide access to supply chain data.

The program is in pilot and will be initially used to trace milk sent from New Zealand farms and producers to Nestlé factories in the Middle East, before being used in the Americas to track palm oil. Nestle will use the pilots to test the system’s scalability, the company said.

“Open blockchain technology might allow us to share reliable information with consumers in an accessible way,” Magdi Batato, executive VP, head of operations, Nestlé S.A. said.

Nestlé said the program does not spell the end of the company’s participation with IBM Food Trust, that began in 2017, although the company is clearly attracted by the “openness” of OpenSC, judging by the press release that announced the pilot.

Unlike IBM Food Trust, that only provides supply chain data to authorised users, the idea behind OpenSC is to make the same information available to everyone, including customers.

“This open blockchain technology will allow anyone, anywhere in the world to assess our responsible sourcing facts and figures,” said Benjamin Ware, global head of responsible sourcing, Nestlé S.A.

“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,” Benjamin Ware added.

In April, Nestlé and Carrefour gave consumers access to blockchain data for the first time, through Mousline purée in France.

The French supermarket has also been actively involved in blockchain technology and has attributed increased sales to its integration of transparent tracking.