Real-time digital auditing: Ingredia and Connecting Food integrate blockchain in dairy ingredients

21 Oct 2019 --- French dairy cooperative Ingredia, in partnership with food transparency blockchain specialist Connecting Food, is unveiling what are marketed as “the first dairy ingredients to be certified, traced and audited in real time.” The solution enables manufacturers to apply a dairy blockchain to their product’s packaging, which will exhibit a dynamic QR code that gives the consumer access to all relevant traceability and audit information in real time. Ingredia outlines that the technology is ready to be implemented on production sites, leading up to the end consumer.

In 2017, the dairy cooperative implemented its CSR policy called Via Lacta. The group was then the first in the dairy sector to collect milk from an eco-responsible specification, called “Via Lacta milk from grass-fed cows,” according to the following criteria:

• Minimum surface area of 1500 m² accessible per cow,
• Minimum grazing period of 170 days per year per cow,
• Milk only from farms in the Hauts-de-France region,
• Minimum price set annually for committed producers and production bonus.

Convinced that the future of the agri-food industry is focused on total transparency from the field to the shelf, Ingredia follows up its CSR commitments by tracking and auditing in real time its eco-responsible dairy ingredients with Connecting Food’s blockchain, coined a “world-first in the dairy sector.”

When written in the blockchain, data is immutable; it is impossible to modify the information.Real-time digital auditing
To verify that a product labeled “animal welfare-friendly” or “origin of the Hauts-de-France” follows exactly these specifications, it is necessary to check with each actor that these criteria have been respected.

Using the digital audit by Connecting Food, it is now possible to trace the different stages of the process; each criterion of the specifications is verified. When written in the blockchain, the data is immutable; it is impossible to modify the information.

The real-time traceability and audit data for Ingredia's eco-responsible ingredients are recorded on this blockchain. This register only has to be linked to the traceability system of the production site of the end product. At the end of the process, the finished product will then be 100 percent traced and audited in real time for Ingredia's customers that are food manufacturers and final consumers.

Big moves in blockchain
Transparency and traceability have been major trends in the food industry for several years. Consumers are confused by the vast number of labels, certifications and promises on their packaging, notes Ingredia.

“Therefore, consumers demand transparency and look for products that are in line with their values and keep their promises,” the company emphasizes.

Emerging technologies are bending the curve on the loss of biodiversity and other sourcing malpractices, which are often the result of complex and opaque global supply chains. Last month, Australia-based OpenSC raised US$4 million in seed funding, advancing its blockchain-powered platform aimed at promoting transparency in food products known to have significant environmental or social injustice risks within their supply chains.

Even still, the digital system has been backed by notable players, such as tech giant IBM, which is working on a multitude of technology-led solutions designed in response to heavy issues burdening the agri-food chain. Earlier this year, Nestlé and Carrefour joined forces with IBM to give consumers the ability to access information from the first blockchain on a national brand in Europe. Carrefour was one of the founding members to join the IBM Food Trust blockchain network in October 2018.

Similarly, Walmart is employing blockchain to track lettuce and spinach through its supply chain. The move is aimed at seriously ramping up food safety following US outbreaks of E. coli in Romaine lettuce and salmonella in a number of products from eggs to breakfast cereal.

Although increasingly in use, blockchain is not without its limitations. The most notable challenge facing blockchain in its adoption in food across the chain is arguably its novelty, as highlighted by Raja Ramachandran, Co-Founder of ripe.io, in an exclusive interview with FoodIngredientsFirst.

By Benjamin Ferrer