European supermarket Carrefour is deploying IBM blockchain across its stores to enable customers to trace their food’s journey from producer to shop.

The French retail giant is collaborating with IBM’s Food Trust platform to roll the distributed ledger technology (DLT) out across its Quality Line product range in the next few years.

The provenance of the items will be tracked on blockchain from supply stage, processing and packaging to distribution, as well as offering essential product safety, quality and nutritional information.

Each product's label will feature a QR Code which consumers will be able to scan using their smartphones to access information, from the place an animal was reared, to the name of the farmer, the feed used and how and when they were packaged and reached the shelf.

A blockchain is a secure digital database that cannot be edited, in which blocks of information are stored incrementally and verified by encryption.

Cosme de Moucheron, IBM’s managing director in charge of Carrefour group, said that “consumers want more and more transparency regarding the products they eat”, adding that the Food Trust platform offered all parties involved in the supply chain guaranteed product traceability and quality.

Carrefour has been implementing blockchain tracking across its product ranges as part of its 2022 transformation plan. The technology is already in use to trace free range chickens and will be rolled out to eight more animal and vegetable product lines such as eggs, cheese, milk, oranges, tomatoes, salmon and ground beef steak.

Laurent Vallée, Carrefour Group’s general secretary, said: "Being a founding member of IBM Food Trust platform is a great opportunity for Carrefour to strongly accelerate and widen the integration of blockchain technology to our products in order to provide our clients with safe and undoubted traceability.”

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