Food Traceability on Blockchain: Walmart’s Pork and Mango Pilots with IBM
Open accessAbstract
In response to food contamination scandals worldwide, retail giant Walmart is tackling food safety in the supply chain using blockchain technology. In 2016, it established the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center in Beijing and plans to invest $25 million over five years to research global food safety (Yiannas and Liu, 2017). Using IBM’s blockchain solution based on Hyperledger Fabric, Walmart has successfully completed two blockchain pilots: pork in China and mangoes in the Americas (IBM, 2017). With a farm-to-table approach, Walmart’s blockchain solution reduced time for tracking mango origins from seven days to 2.2 seconds and promoted greater transparency across Walmart’s food supply chain (Yiannas, 2017). IBM called it “complete end-to-end traceability” (McDermott, 2017). The case highlights the challenges of implementing blockchain technology in the food supply chain and the opportunities for deploying blockchain solutions throughout the global food ecosystem to increase safety and reduce waste.
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Blockchain's inherent strengths-immutability and speed-establish a transparent, verifiable record of custody for the Executive level.
“While relational and NoSQL databases may be used at this level, blockchain’s inherent strengths—immutability and speed [4]—establish a transparent, verifiable record of custody for the Executive level.”
From IoT and Blockchain for Support for Smart Contracts Through TpM (2025) · cites this paper as [4]
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Alshdaifat, S. M., Aziz, N. H. A., Alhasnawi, M. Y., Alharasis, E. E., Al Qadi, F., & Al Amosh, H. (2024) · Journal of Risk and Financial Management · doi:10.3390/jrfm17110509 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
IoT and Blockchain for Support for Smart Contracts Through TpM
Yamaguti, R., Ferreira, L. C. B. C., Lui Motta, L., Montali Assumpção, R., Branquinho, O. C., Iervolino, G., & Cardieri, P. (2025) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s25165001 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Driven by advancements in blockchain technology, major players like IBM [4] are actively developing more powerful, reliable, and cost-effective platforms, paving the way for wider industrial adoption.”
Influential
- Authors
- Kamath, R.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kamath, Reshma
- Venue
- The Journal of the British Blockchain Association
- Publisher
- The British Blockchain Association
- Published
- 2018-07-04
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-12
- ISSN
- 2516-3949 (ISSN-L)
- 2516-3957
- OpenAlex
- W2807837006
- Cited by
- 509
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 47 · 2025: 78 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 79 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 40.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- The Journal of British Blockchain Association (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Supply Chain Traceability
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Safety and Hygiene
- Keywords
- food traceability, blockchain, Walmart, IBM, Hyperledger Fabric, food safety, supply chain transparency, pork supply chain, mango supply chain, food contamination
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