IBM, Raw Seafoods collaborate to use blockchain to improve seafood traceability

IBM and Raw Seafoods have announced a new collaboration connecting global sourcing partners, retailers, and restauranteurs who will begin using IBM Food Trust platform to enhance seafood traceability. Built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, the initiative will start by digitizing the supply chain for scallops sourced from the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery.

Starting immediately, a fleet of scallopers owned by Captain Danny Eilertsen of New Bedford, Mass., will begin uploading data about their catch onto the platform, enabling distributors and retailers to identify exactly when and where a given lot of scallops was harvested. The platform will also track when the boat landed portside, and when each scallop lot was hand graded, selected, packed, and shipped to its final destination. This information, as well as images and video, is uploaded via satellite to a distributed ledger while still offshore. Once it is uploaded, this information is then available to permissioned parties, including distributors, suppliers, retailers, and their customers at point of sale.

“With IBM Food Trust, we found the perfect tool for establishing a direct link between the consumer and the captain of the boat that caught their fish, empowering shoppers and diners to demand more from their food supply chain,” said Daniel McQuade, Raw Seafoods vice president of marketing.

“Traditionally, tracing the origin of a given food product like scallops could take days, if it was possible at all, especially for wild caught sea scallops,” said Rajendra Rao, general manager of IBM Food Trust. “By reducing that time frame to a matter of seconds, we’re able to solve three of the core consumer concerns that deter them from enjoying seafood: safety, sustainability, and authenticity.”

Press release