Walmart’s food-tracking up, running
Walmart Inc. is no longer just testing the use of blockchain technology in its foodsupply chain, according to Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety.
The retailer — which first partnered with IBM Corp. on a pilot project last year — now is introducing the technology into a small portion of its food business.
Yiannas, speaking at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week, said Walmart and IBM have moved into the “production” phase of the initiative. Nearly two dozen items sold in Walmart stores are being tracked by a blockchain ledger through each phase of the supply chain as the companies continue to develop a system they believe will improve traceability and transparency in the food system.
“We’re now beyond proof of concepts,” Yiannas said during the conference.
A blockchain is a distributed, digital ledger used to securely record transactions. While the technology has been more closely linked to the financial-services industry, Walmart is collaborating with IBM to develop blockchain as a solution to what Yiannas described as a “complex” food system.
Records of products like meat, fruits and vegetables that move from producers to distributors to grocers before reaching consumers often are kept on paper, and federal regulations require companies only to track one step ahead of them and one step behind in the supply chain. Yiannas believes the lack of transparency is an Achilles’ heel. Identifying the origin of a product to resolve food-safety issues — like contamination or foodborne illness — often takes days or weeks.
But Yiannas said the pilot phase of the Walmart/IBM blockchain test, which tracked the distribution of pork in
China and mangoes in the U.S., showed the time could be trimmed. Identifying the origin of sliced mangoes previously took nearly seven days, but required just 2.2 seconds with blockchain technology.
“That’s food traceability at the speed of thought,” Yiannas said. “As fast as you can think it, we could know it.”
Walmart and IBM worked together on the pilot program. Both have made clear that wide-scale improvements in traceability and transparency can’t be achieved without collaboration.
They’ve recruited others to help them begin building out a blockchain system. Last August, they announced a collaboration with companies like Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., Nestle, Unilever, Driscoll’s and Kroger.
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said in a statement Friday that the company teamed with Walmart and IBM for a project that traced 18 finished products nearly in
real time. Mickelson said the project, which spanned several months and focused on a blockchain-based food-safety system, led to a reduction of “effort and time” from about seven to 10 business days to 4 to 5 minutes.
Yiannas was not available for comment this week, but Walmart spokesman Rebecca Lui said the retailer continues to work with “select suppliers” on the initiative. The work, according to Lui, is being done in a “very disciplined, collaborative, and transparent way, with scalability in mind.”
The initial focus is tracing about two dozen products end-to-end through the food system, but the number of items on the blockchain will quickly increase throughout the year.
“What is most important is that we are building an ecosystem of food system stakeholders and we are all learning together,” Lui said in a statement. “For blockchain to deliver what we hope it will in terms of building a safer, smarter, and more sustainable food system, we’ll need more suppliers and retailers
involved. For us, food safety isn’t a competitive issue, it’s a collaborative one.”
Annibal Sodero, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said pulling together suppliers and implementing the technology on nearly two dozen items is a sign of progress. Sodero said the companies are racing to develop a global blockchain standard, which would make it challenging for others to form partnerships with food suppliers and retailers.
“Once it becomes a standard, it becomes very difficult for you to do business outside of this standard,” Sodero said.
Detailed information collected and shared as part of the digital ledger also could improve efficiency, lower costs and reduce food waste as companies move products from farm to consumers.
A transparent, digital database also would reduce the risk of fraud or tampering through the supply chain.
But Yiannas said the “daunting challenge and important responsibility to serve safe food” is the key driver behind the blockchain efforts and pointed to the current romaine lettuce safety concerns.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 98 people across 22 states have now been infected with a strain of E. coli after eating romaine lettuce. The government has encouraged consumers not to eat or buy romaine lettuce unless they can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Ariz., growing region and for restaurants and retailers not to sell it because of possible contamination.
The exact origin of the contamination has not been identified.
Yiannas said the fact the food industry is still not to the point where it could scan a package of romaine lettuce and know exactly where it came from is “just not acceptable.” He believes blockchain can solve the problem.
“I can promise you Walmart is not chasing the new shiny coin or [going] after the new fad,” Yiannas said. “That’s not what we’re doing. I know blockchain is in vogue and in fashion, but what we are trying to do is solve business challenges.”