Korean food giant Nongshim’s subsidiary taps blockchain for end-to-end traceability of beef

NDS, a subsidiary of Korean food producer Nongshim, has partnered with blockchain startup Ambrosus to track and trace premium quality beef sold by food retailer Mega Mart.

In an online post, NDS said that it has been doing blockchain research based on Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. Nongshim Group has also developed a solution to implement blockchain technology in the field of food safety.

Founded in 2017 by Angel Versetti and Dr Stefan Meyer, Ambrosus is a blockchain-powered IoT network for food and pharmaceutical enterprises that aims to optimise supply chain visibility and quality assurance. It will use the AMB-NET blockchain to pioneer a beef traceability model in Mega Mart, which will let company partners and consumers to easily access detailed information about the history and transportation surrounding each cut of beef.

“Cooperating with NDS for this Proof-of-Concept is mutually beneficial to both companies, as the PoC will provide consumers with much-needed information about the quality and origin of their beef products,” Versetti said.

“Ambrosus is looking forward to building an end-to-end solution for Mega Mart’s beef supply chain, and to demonstrate the flexibility and efficiency of Ambrosus’ blockchain and IoT platform. Ambrosus is proud to pioneer this beef traceability solution in cooperation with the NDS.”

Using distributed ledger technology, Ambrosus will identify and track all of Mega Mart’s’ beef. It will also configure the data from each piece of meat into a consumer-oriented application, designed to facilitate trust and maximize customer satisfaction. By simply scanning a QR code using a smartphone, consumers will be able to access details such as the specific cow, its origin, the veterinarian’s health check of the meat, and the transportation conditions of the product. In this way, the location, quality, and temperature of Korea’s finest beef can effectively be monitored.

“With the Ambrosus Network, NDS will be able to demonstrate the quality and origin of a variety of premium beef products in order to build consumer trust with much-needed transparency. For the first time, blockchain technology can be leveraged to practically improve Korean food standards, especially for all customers of Mega Mart,” Joong-Won Kim, CEO of NDS, said.

This proof-of-concept of the Ambrosus Network follows a recent partnership with PREMIUM Goods, a French flavoring company, to use blockchain and IoT to provide transparency and proof-of-quality to Madagascar bourbon vanilla. The Ambrosus mainnet was launched in July 2018.