Walmart, Sam’s Club utilize blockchain technology to achieve end-to-end food traceability
The aim is to now extend the technology to help reduce the number of people who fall ill during food incidents while at the same time reducing losses for retailers and suppliers during a recall.
Walmart, Bentonville, Ark., and Sam’s Club will ask suppliers of leafy greens to implement real-time, end-to-end traceability back to the farm using blockchain technology by this time next year. For food safety, this helps to more accurately pinpoint issues in the food chain and further protect customers against foodborne illnesses.
In March 2017, Walmart began working with IBM, North Castle, N.Y., and 11 other food companies to develop a blockchain-enabled food traceability network built on open-source technology. In an initial pilot conducted by Walmart and IBM, the amount of time it took the retailer to trace an item from store to farm was reduced from 7 days to just 2.2 seconds.