Neogen Corporation announced that it 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.
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 the food and livestock 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 chief executive officer. "Blockchain technology has a lot to offer both our food safety diagnostic and animal genomic customers, 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, etc. Blockchain can serve to optimize the entire supply chains of many of the markets that Neogen serves.
"ripe.io is the perfect partner for us as we work to adapt the technology to our industry," Adent continued. "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," said Raja Ramachandran, ripe.io's chief executive officer. "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 innovative 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.
