Mastercard to bring more clarity to supply-chain networks

In an effort to bring more clarity to the story behind the foods people consume, Mastercard decided to collaborate with Envisible, a company that allows supply-chain visibility in food systems.

According to Mastercard, Envisibile's tracibility system will be powered by Mastercard's blockchain-based Provenance Solution and used by Topco Associates, LLC, a food cooperative, to help its member-owners’ supermarkets trace the origin of seafood, an initiative similar to that of IBM and Raw Seafoods Inc. (Read More).

This system promotes ethical seafood sourcing and environmental compliance in the fish market. The initial speicies that will be traced are salmon, cod and shrimp. “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 Wholechain solution,” said Scott Caro, senior vice president of Fresh, Topco.

“Using Envisible Wholechain, powered by Mastercard, our grocers will be able to stock shelves with confidence and also be able to pinpoint issues in the food chain during any unfortunate events such as recalls,” added Dan Glei, executive vice president, Merchandising and Marketing, Food City.

The Mastercard Provenance Solution will help brands remain ethical by providing them with a clear tracking system and thus, opening the way for customer trust and awareness. Highly-regulated marekts could also benefit from Mastercard's solution as it boosts governance capabilities in complicated supply-chain networks.

“The identity of things is becoming even more important as consumers raise demands for transparency,” said Deborah Barta, senior vice president, Innovation and Startup Engagement, Mastercard. “Our provenance solution leverages Mastercard’s established network capabilities, globally-scaled technology, and services, such as payments and counterfeit programs. This allows us to deliver trust, financial inclusion and back-end efficiencies to the marketplace.”

“The sheer volume of global trade makes it difficult to track the journey and authenticity of food,” said Mark Kaplan, partner, Envisible. “We’re excited that Mastercard shares our vision and is driving consumer trust by bringing its significant expertise in using technology at scale with commercial-grade processing speeds, data flexibility and privacy, and security standards to an area that has previously been considerably opaque.”