FDBusiness.com

Soft drinks group and Refresco and Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn have made the supply chain of Albert Heijn’s own brand of ambient orange juice transparent by using blockchain technology. Refresco supplies Albert Heijn with juice, sourced from Louis Dreyfus Company’s juice business. Never before have consumers been able to follow the chain of a product like orange juice in this way. They can now see, via a QR code, which route the oranges have traveled up until the juice is in a bottle on the store shelf.

Marit van Egmond, Commercial Director at Albert Heijn, says: “We supply millions of customers with good food and drink on a daily basis. This brings with it a large responsibility, and we want to actively contribute to current themes in the world around us. We are making our products healthier, are working on reducing food waste and we look at how to reduce our impact on the environment. The importance of transparency in the supply chain continues to increase. We know all the steps in the supply chain of our products, to ensure they are produced with respect for people, animals and the environment. And we want to show these steps to our clients as well, be open and transparent.”

Albert Heijn has long-standing relationships with fixed producers and suppliers for its 11,000 Albert Heijn brand products. In some cases, a production process can be made transparent relatively easily, for example, with fruits and vegetables from the Netherlands. It is more difficult for other products because they have a longer chain or consist of multiple ingredients. By using blockchain, a technology that records every step in the chain, it is possible to show customers how and by whom these products are made.

Albert Heijn and Refresco are using blockchain for the first time with AH’s ambient orange juice. The data from the steps in the production chain is linked and made transparent. The blockchain was developed in co-operation with Supply Chain Information Management (SIM), an expert in visualizing and providing continuous insight into chains via research and databases.

Juicy details

Via a QR code on the packaging, customers can follow the entire route that their orange juice has traveled before it ended up in their shopping basket. It starts in Brazil at the orange groves managed by LDC Juice, where the fruit is harvested. Among other things, the quality standards that LDC Juice has for food safety and sustainability are recorded there. The blockchain also contains information about the oranges themselves, including the harvest date range and degree of sweetness. Consumers can see these details in the chain and even send a compliment to the growers with the “Like2Farmer” functionality.

Maarten Kusters, Managing Director of Refresco Benelux, says: “This is a unique way of bringing together the grower, processor, bottler, retailer and consumer and making the entire process of fruit juice production traceable and transparent. We are pleased that we can make a contribution in this way as Albert Heijn’s partner. Being the world’s largest independent producer of juices and soft drinks, Refresco is committed to a sustainable fruit juice sector. We aim for 100% sustainably-sourced juice by 2030 in fruit juice products of our clients. In support of this ambition, we co-founded the Sustainable Juice Covenant last year, alongside other leading industry players.”