Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Will Walmart's Bet on IBM Blockchain Pay Off?

It's been a particularly bad year for food poisoning and contamination, from 5 dead and over 200 sick due to an E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce in California, to needles being placed in strawberries in Australia (and now New Zealand.) A critical way to address the problem is through the ability to track products from farm to store and ultimately consumers. It's estimated that every year, one-in-ten people fall ill — and 400,000 die — from contaminated food.

After several years of tests, Walmart is ready to mandate the use of blockchain technology by a swath of its U.S. suppliers, marking it as one of its biggest commercial uses. Starting in September 2019, Walmart and its Sam’s Club division will require suppliers of fresh, leafy greens to implement real-time, end-to-end traceability of products back to the farm using a digital ledger developed by IBM. The world’s largest retailer plans similar mandates for other fresh fruit and vegetable providers within the next year, according to Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety:



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