Food safety company Neogen Corporation has entered into a partnership with food industry blockchain pioneer Ripe Technology (ripe.io) to adapt innovative blockchain technology for use with Neogen’s food safety diagnostics and animal genomics. This development comes as agri-tech solutions are bending the curve of productivity and traceability in the agriculture sector, signalling prominent shifts for food businesses.
Blockchain is a form of digital technology that “chains” together “blocks” of information in such a way that it creates a permanent, unalterable record. In the food and livestock industries, blockchain could be used to create the history of products and animals as they go through their entire production cycles.
“Blockchain has tremendous potential throughout these industries, both to verify the authenticity of premium products, such as cage-free eggs, and enhance the traceability of issues that require correction, such as those that lead to product recalls,” says John Adent, Neogen’s CEO.
Adent further emphasizes that blockchain technology has “plenty to offer in the context of both food safety diagnostics and animal genomics,” as the technology permanently connects a tremendous amount of potentially critical data, including results from Neogen’s tests, to a food product or animal.
“There are countless potential benefits to adopting the technology. For example, the genomic profile of a dairy cow could be connected with the feed the animal eats, its medical history, barn environment, quantity and quality of the milk it produces, and so on. Blockchain can serve to optimize the entire supply chains of many of the markets that Neogen serves,” he explains.
“ripe.io is the perfect partner for us as we work to adapt the technology to our industry,” Adent continues. “They have real-life experience with working with food producers, food distributors, restaurants and food retailers – all key market segments for us.”
“We are extremely excited that Neogen selected us as their blockchain and ledger technology partner,” says Raja Ramachandran, ripe.io’s CEO. “Neogen's diagnostics and DNA expertise can add the highest degree of transparency and factual correctness for critical issues around authenticity and accuracy on food recalls. We believe this will change the game in food transparency for improved quality assessment from the beginning of the supply chain all the way to consumers.”
The blockchain technology will be initially separate from Neogen’s recently announced Neogen Analytics platform; however, when fully integrated, the company believes the two technologies can form the basis for advanced data-driven decisions for its customers. Neogen Analytics is an platform that will enable Neogen customers to automate food safety workflows, and continuously monitor and analyze food risk data generated by the company’s food safety diagnostic products.
By automating and connecting multiple data points through diagnostic testing in a production facility, the food safety data analytics platform enables food producers and processors to harness their data to create a holistic picture around areas of risk that can guide operational decisions.
Earlier this month, Neogen released Igenity + Envigor – a genetic test that measures heterosis in crossbred cattle – in what it described as “a first for the beef industry.” In cattle breeding, heterosis is the term given to the tendency of a crossbred calf to show traits superior to those of its parents.
Boom in blockchain
Blockchain technology brings together all supply chain parties, simplifying the exchange and tracking of information and payments, as well as enabling greater trust. It creates a permanent digitized chain of transactions that cannot be altered. Each network participant has an exact copy of the data and additions to the blockchain are shared throughout the network based on each participant’s level of permission.
Last October, French dairy cooperative Ingredia, in partnership with food transparency blockchain specialist Connecting Food, unveiled what are marketed as “the first dairy ingredients to be certified, traced and audited in real time.”
In September, Australia-based OpenSC raised US$4 million in seed funding, advancing its blockchain-powered platform aimed at promoting transparency in food products known to have significant environmental or social injustice risks within their supply chains.
Similarly, Walmart has employed blockchain to track lettuce and spinach across its supply chain. The move was aimed at seriously ramping up food safety following last year’s US outbreaks of E. coli in Romaine lettuce and salmonella in a number of products, from eggs to breakfast cereal.
Although increasingly in pegged as an effective approach to bending the curve on the loss of biodiversity and other sourcing malpractices, blockchain is not without its limitations. The most notable challenge facing blockchain in its adoption in food across the chain is arguably its novelty, as highlighted by Raja Ramachandran, Co-Founder of ripe.io.
