An official press release dated 5th February 2020 announced that the international food safety organization Neogen Corporation and blockchain solutions provider Ripe Technology (ripe.io) to bring blockchain to animal genomics and food diagnostics.
The emerging technology of blockchain has found some potential use cases in the field of food supply chain and safety. Its ability to chain blocks of information together across millions of computers makes it practically impossible for anyone to hack into the system and manipulate the data. This is an important aspect when it comes to ensuring transparency in the supply chain process.
And although recent research by Gartner suggests that blockchain will be unable to leave an impactful impression on the supply chain this year, given most of the projects are still in their infancy, it hasn’t deterred major corporations from embracing the technology and exploring its potential.
Bringing blockchain to animal genomics and diagnostics
Thus, the Neogen-Ripe technology partnership took form intending to create and store the history of animal products as they go through the entire production cycle from the livestock industry to supply chain and distribution.
John Adent, the Neogen CEO, said in the announcement that the whole intention of bringing blockchain to animal genomics was the growing concerns surrounding the sourcing of cage-free and free-range eggs, genuinity of product origins, and traceability. Blockchain can effectively address all of that much more and drastically reduce supply chain corrections by minimizing product recalls, Adent confirmed.
He furthered that blockchain Neogen and its customers will benefit tremendously by tapping blockchain’s potential. The fact that it can securely store critical information, including test results from Neogen labs, suggests that the technology has a lot to offer in food safety diagnostics and animal genomics.
Elaborating on how blockchain can turn the table around for this industry, Adent explained that using blockchain technology; we can efficiently carry out genomic profiling of a cow and determine what kind of product it was fed on, know its medical history, barn conditions, and quality as well as the quantity of milk it will offer. This way, technology can optimize the entire supply chain process, he asserted.
Commenting on why the firm decided to go ahead with Ripe Technology given a large number of emerging players in this field, Adent said that ripe.io has abundant experience in working with food producers, farmers, suppliers, and retailers, which makes them an obvious choice for piloting this initiative.
Raja Ramachandran, Ripe Technology CEO, was thrilled to be a part of the pilot blockchain project. We are honored to be the trusted blockchain partner for Neogen. By merging the expertise and technologies from both companies, we can create some advanced data-driven and user-centric products for our customers. With fully-automated food supply workflows that connect multiple data sources across various networks that can prove to be a game-changer for diagnostic testing, Ramachandran affirmed.
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