Global retailer Walmart, following the inauguration of its new Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center in Beijing, announced its partnership with IBM and Tsinghua University in a pilot project to explore the potentials of blockchain technology in order to improve the way food is tracked, transported and sold to customers across China.

According to the official release, the project aims to help enhance the safety of food on the tables of Chinese customers by harnessing the power of distributed ledger technology. Blockchain presents an innovative way to tackle the critical step involved in food authentication and supply chain tracking. It serves as an alternative to traditional paper tracking and manual inspection systems that can lead supply chain vulnerable to inaccuracies.

“Advanced technology has reached into so many aspects of modern life but it has lagged in food traceability, and in particular in creating more secure food supply chains. Our collaboration with Walmart and Tsinghua University is a step of global significance to change that. Food touches all of us, everywhere, so we are experimenting in China with Walmart and Tsinghua given the size and scale of food consumption in this country,” Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, Industry Platforms, IBM said.

Blockchain enables digital tracking of food products from an ecosystem of suppliers to store shelves and ultimately to consumers. Blockchain when applied to supply chain, digital product information including farm origination details, batch numbers, factory and processing data, expiration dates, among others are digitally connected to food items. The information that is stored on the blockchain provides critical data points that could reveal food safety issues with the product that cannot be altered, thus helping in accuracy.

"As advocates of promoting greater transparency in the food system for our customers, we look forward to working with IBM and Tsinghua University to explore how this technology might be used as a more effective food traceability solution," Frank Yiannas, Vice President, Food Safety, Walmart said.

The collaboration will involve scientists from IBM Research – China, working alongside top talent in transaction security and authentication technology from Tsinghua University and with Walmart's expertise in supply chain, logistics, and food safety. The new model for food traceability, supply chain transparency and auditability will be based on IBM Blockchain on the open source Linux Foundation Hyperledger Project fabric.