MANUFACTURING
NEWS
PLANT
OPENINGS &
EXPANSIONS
KONTOS FOODS has set 2020
as a completion date for ongoing
expansion of its production facility
and staff in Patterson, NJ.
HUDSON RIVER FOODS,
formerly Healthy Brands Collective,
relocated its new 100,000-sq.-ft.
headquarters and manufacturing
facility to Castleton, NY.
BUTTERBALL LLC is expanding
its Raeford, NC operations to include
a new production line for turkey
bacon products. The $20-million
investment will create 50 new jobs.
TIPPMANN INNOVATION
provided a tour of its refrigerated
INDEX FRESH plant in Pharr, TX.
The 60,000-sq.-ft. facility features
2,600 pallet positions and 10
avocado ripening rooms.
JOHN SOULES FOODS
purchased a 266,000-sq.-ft. facility
in Valley, AL and will invest $110
million to produce ready-to-cook
and fully cooked beef and chicken
products, creating a total of 510 jobs.
SIMPLOT RDO is renovating
a former vegetable processing
facility in Pasco, WA. When
finished, the building will include
a 25,000-sq.-ft. expansion valued
at $2.5 million, and total building
IMAGE SOURCE IBM
capacity will be 100,000 sq. ft. to
process and distribute local crops.
February 2018
FOR THE MOST
UP-TO-DATE
NEWS AND
INFORMATION
Visit us at
FoodEngineering
Blockchain alliance Mag.com
for food safety in China
Walmart, JD.com,
IBM and Tsinghua Univer-
sity National Engineering
Laboratory for E-Com-
merce Technologies are
working together to form
the Blockchain Food Safe-
ty Alliance. The group’s
purpose is to enhance
food safety, tracking and
traceability in China.
Blockchain technology is
a distributed digital ledger
technology that uses cryp-
tography and timestamps
to provide a permanent
record of various types Blockchain technology can will act as a technical advisor,
of transactions. This be used to improve food sharing its expertise in the
technology powers Bitcoin, traceability by providing key technologies and the Chi-
and the project plans to trusted information on the nese food safety ecosystem.
use it to achieve greater origin and state of food. Walmart, instrumental
Pictured is a crate of oranges
transparency across the in developing a produce
being scanned as part of a
food supply chain. traceability initiative in 2013,
food safety blockchain.
The original four works closely with suppli-
alliance members are working together to ers, regulators, industry partners and the
create a standards-based method for col- research community around the world. The
lecting data concerning the origin, safety company has invested heavily in food safe-
and authenticity of food using blockchain ty research in China through the Walmart
technology to provide real-time traceability Food Safety and Collaboration Center. The
throughout the supply chain. The goal is to retailer has promoted food safety through
stimulate accountability and give suppliers, its own supplier network, as well as work-
regulators and consumers greater trans- ing with JD, which has broad experience in
parency into how food is handled from the food supply chain management in China.
farm ultimately to the consumers. This Walmart and JD have been able to lever-
transparency has not been an easy propo- age JD’s expertise in the application of AI,
sition due to the complex and fragmented blockchain, big data and other new technol-
data sharing systems—many of which are ogies designed to protect consumers.
paper based and prone to errors.
The four founding alliance members are WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?
working with supply chain providers and Blockchain is ideally suited to help address
regulators to develop the standards, solu- food safety and supply chain issues, as
tions and partnerships to enable a broad- it provides a trusted environment for all
based food safety ecosystem in China. IBM transactions among growers, suppliers,
will provide its IBM Blockchain Platform processors, distributors, retailers, regula-
and expertise, while Tsinghua University tors and consumers—any of which can
FOOD ENGINEERING foodengineeringmag.com 15
 MANUFACTURING NEWS

permit access to information regard- view,” says Bridget van Kralingen, transactions. The Linux Foundation, to
ing the origin and state of food for senior vice president, IBM Industry which IBM contributed thousands of
their transactions. Platforms. lines of its codebase and corresponding
“There is a real gap in being able to Blockchain is an open-source digital intellectual property, has been a major
look across the food ecosystem and technology, which uses a distributed innovator in open-source blockchain
provide an end-to-end traceability ledger for recording and verifying technology. The distributed ledger is a
permanent, secure tool that makes it
easier to create cost-effective business
networks without requiring a central-
PREMIUM CAN/CONVEYOR CABLE ized point of control. With distributed
ledgers, virtually anything of value can
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allows securities to be sett led in min-
utes instead of days.
When IBM was choosing what it
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We have just the solution for you! Our heavy-duty braided tion’s ledger approach made sense to
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even under the harshest conditions. to kick off the Hyperledger Project,”
says van Kralingen. “By using block-
Or, could you use can cable that is a dependable performer
in a dryer environment? For that application, we offer chain technology, we’re making data
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the information.”
What kind of traceback improve-
ments can be expected?
“The public information is the pilot
we did with Walmart around mangoes
earlier,” says van Kralingen.
Using traditional methods to
discover the origin of a shipment of
mangoes , it took six days, 18 hours and
26 minutes to get that information—
and that is among the better traceback
results in the industry. When the
traceback was run from the block-
chain system, it took two seconds,
and there was infinite traceability
(original producer, every processor
and storage facility and the transit
steps as well).
For a full-length interview with van
Kralingen on blockchain technology,
Marchant Schmidt is a manufacturer, re-builder, and distributor for
products serving the food, dairy and beverage industries worldwide. read on Food Engineering’s website,
“Exclusive Interview with IBM’s
SERVING THE FOOD INDUSTRY SINCE 1963 Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice
president, IBM Industry Platforms.”

16 FOOD ENGINEERING foodengineeringmag.com February 2018

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