Walmart Collaborates With IBM to Track Food in China

By S. Rina | Oct 20, 2016 04:30 PM EDT

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Walmart is attempting to gain the trust of its customers by using blockchain technology to track its pork supply in China.(Photo : Pixabay)

Walmart has announced that it would be using blockchain technology to track the pork supply chain in China. The technology has been used by several consumer technology and financial services companies for the purpose of more efficient record keeping. Walmart is collaborating with IBM for this purpose.

Under this new project, Walmart, IBM and Tsinghua University will join hands to overhaul the supply chain using blockchain technology. The technology, which is also known as a distributed ledger, is expected to help in reducing the instances of disease outbreaks due to contaminated food. The technology was developed by the Hyperledger Project, an open source software project. The blockchain used by Hyperledger is a private database, co-developed by IBM.

There are concerns about food contamination in China. The government has emphasized food authentication and tracking as a key step for the speedy identification of sources of contamination. Blockchain can track the movement of food from its source to the retail stores or even to the consumers.

IBM emphasized that blockchain enables a permanent record of events, which cannot be altered later. This system can efficiently replace traditional manual tracking and inspection method. Blockchain is expected to keep a record of various variables such as expiration dates, processing data, storage temperatures, and batch numbers.

Walmart is currently revamping its plans in China in a bid to attract more customers in the country. It recently increased its stake in JD.com Inc., the second largest e-commerce website in Chin