The largest food group in the United States partners with the payment giant Mastercard to develop blockchain traceability applications.

The largest food group in the United States, Topco Associates, will utilize Mastercard's blockchain technology to develop a "food traceability system," aiming to bring transparency to the food supply chain that is not typically accessible to the general consumers, in order to ensure food safety and trust.

According to a press release issued on 10/27, Topco Group will adopt a traceability platform developed by logistics company Envisible and collaborate with Mastercard to develop a traceability system named Wholechain.

Topco Group will use this system in collaboration with chain food stores such as Food City to test its ability to track and provide data on salmon, cod, and shrimp products.

Officials from Envisible stated that this technology will enable members and customers to understand the ethical sourcing and environmental compliance of seafood provided by the stores. Dan Glei, Executive Vice President of Food City, expressed:

Beyond consumers, this will allow grocery retailers to dive deeper into issues on the food supply chain, such as returns, product freshness, and even data discrepancies.

Topco currently has nearly 50 members, including supermarkets, wholesalers, food retailers, and pharmacy companies, with a total revenue of nearly $170 billion. Once this system is officially adopted on a large scale, its impact on consumers will be significant. As Deborah Barta, Vice President of Mastercard, stated:

As consumer demand for transparency continues to rise, the traceability of products becomes increasingly important. Leveraging the network capabilities and global technology and services already established by Mastercard enables us to provide a system that offers trust, financial inclusion, and backend efficiency to the market.

Blockchain Provides Transparency for Food Supply Chains

As of today, the use of blockchain technology for traceability is highly suitable. Not only Topco Group and Mastercard as mentioned in this article, but also well-known U.S. retailer Walmart has started using blockchain technology for traceability purposes. According to a report, Walmart has been tracking food in its supply chain through Vechain's Thor blockchain since June.

The report indicates that this is the first time the technology has been used to track shrimp in the country, and Walmart is using it for shrimp from India.

According to a report, in August, Switzerland's largest chain of supermarkets and retailers, Migros, announced that it would use a food traceability system based on TE-Food for its products.

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