News

Mastercard to pilot seafood supply chain with blockchain at Topco's Food City

October 27, 2019

Mastercard has entered an agreement with Envisible, a firm that tracks food industry supply chains, to use blockchain technology to track the origin of seafood sold at Topco Associates, a $14 billion food cooperative based in Illinois. 

The companies will help Topco run a pilot program to trace the origins of seafood, including salmon, cod and shrimp, sold through its member grocery stores, starting with Food City, to make sure they are in compliance with environmental compliance and ethical sourcing. 

Mastercard Provenance Solution, which is built upon the payments company's proprietary blockchain network, helps brands in various industries gain visibility into the movement of products throughout a supply chain. 

"The identity of things is becoming even more important as consumers raise demands for transparency," Deborah Barta, senior vice president, innovation and startup engagement at Mastercard, said in a company release. "Our Provenance Solution leverages Mastercard's established network capabilities, globally scaled technologies and services, such as payments and counterfeit programs."

The technology will help the supermarket trace the origins of food sources, which can be critical during situations like product recalls, officials said. 

"Given consumers' expectations for reliable information about the food that they eat, we're excited to partner with Food City and Envisible on this trace and provenance solution pilot and the promise of Envisible's wholesale solution," Scott Caro, senior vice president of fresh at Topco, said in a press release. 

Mastercard in August announced a program to track counterfeit goods in the fashion industry using Provenance. 

Cover image: Mastercard.