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Publié le April 12, 2024
Connecting Food has implemented a traceability and supply chain management system, with the Barilla Group currently as a client. During the 60th edition of the International Agriculture Fair, the startup invited xFarm to share the stage for a conference highlighting the valuation of agricultural data from field to fork.
In an environment where European institutions demand more transparency (EUDR, CSRD, Supply Chain Due Diligence) and in the United States (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act Food Traceability Rule), and where consumers have less visibility on their products, as demonstrated by UFC-Que Choisir in their recent study (43% of ingredients mention no origin on their packaging, while 22% display a vague origin, see our infographic), we are all increasingly concerned about the origin of our food and the tangibility of brands' environmental commitments. It is therefore essential for industries to commit to more transparency.
Making data accessible and qualified, a necessity
Identifying useful data and making it available is one of the main challenges raised by many agri-food professionals, faced with increasingly strict health standards and the proliferation of intermediaries. This is where xFarm Technologies comes in. The comprehensive farm management platform, as confirmed by its Business Manager France, Thomas Collet, acknowledges this fact: "Agri-food industries struggle to collect quality data to diagnose their plots and know where to act to reduce their carbon emissions." With their solution, they collect all the data from their partner farmers' plots and thus create accessible and qualified data.
Next, Connecting Food can take over to collect, verify, and standardize data from different sources, including AgTech solutions like xFarm, to make them exploitable. With their expertise, they trace data through different processing stages. The data management platform has chosen two technologies to support its solution: blockchain to notarize data, make it tamper-proof, and digital twins (digital representation of a physical reality) allowing the modeling of processes, flows, and risk management to better anticipate hazards on the value chain.
In other words, as Connecting Food's founder, Stefano Volpi, reminds us, "Once the data is recorded and notarized in the blockchain, I can share it with clients, institutions, or consumers." This technological choice proves ideal for offering precision, simplicity, and interoperability to agricultural stakeholders in the collection and processing of their data.
Next, Connecting Food can take over to collect, verify, and standardize data from different sources, including AgTech solutions like xFarm, to make them exploitable. With their expertise, they trace data through different processing stages. The data management platform has chosen two technologies to support its solution: blockchain to notarize data, make it tamper-proof, and digital twins (digital representation of a physical reality) allowing the modeling of processes, flows, and risk management to better anticipate hazards on the value chain.
In other words, as Connecting Food's founder, Stefano Volpi, reminds us, "Once the data is recorded and notarized in the blockchain, I can share it with clients, institutions, or consumers." This technological choice proves ideal for offering precision, simplicity, and interoperability to agricultural stakeholders in the collection and processing of their data.
Optimized and Shared Agricultural Data
Initially, Connecting Food collects and verifies information from various existing data sources (such as those provided by xFarm). The company then traces its data by creating digital twins associated with each raw material, which can then be mixed with other ingredients in the finished product, creating new digital twins. Each of these digital twins can encapsulate information related to the upstream value chain and related to scope 3 objectives, such as the number of kilometers traveled, practices implemented, transformations made, etc.
Finally, as Stefano Volpi, co-founder of Connecting Food, points out, "once mapped and traced, I can share this certified information internally or with our clients' teams to make their systems more efficient, smoother, to save time and be more precise. It is also possible to share this same information externally to create business and value."
Finally, as Stefano Volpi, co-founder of Connecting Food, points out, "once mapped and traced, I can share this certified information internally or with our clients' teams to make their systems more efficient, smoother, to save time and be more precise. It is also possible to share this same information externally to create business and value."
The Barilla Case - Pesto alla Genovese
As the world leader in the ready-to-use sauce market, Barilla understands the importance of technology to track a supply chain that is becoming increasingly complex. The group is thus aiming to reduce its CO2 emissions, particularly by continuing its efforts on scope 3 regarding regenerative agriculture.
The industrial giant has therefore chosen, to embark on traceability, one of its iconic recipes based on simple ingredients but with strict specifications in terms of freshness and quality: Pesto alla Genovese. With this project Barilla is pursuing a double objective: digitalize its supply chain and optimize its processes while strengthening its relationship with consumers.
With this system, the industrialist can ensure real-time traceability at the batch level, anticipate any problems concerning its raw materials (batch recalls, digital audits of specifications, certification management, etc.), and identify any discrepancies between suppliers and different protocols and certificates.
Once structured and cleaned, Barilla can share this information with consumers directly from the packaging. The consumer simply has to scan the QR code on the packaging, enter the lot number to access the web app, which gives them access to augmented and targeted information about the product. They can then find all the information about the product lot by lot (origin, harvest date, CSR commitment, dynamic map of the different actors, etc.).
After a year of collaboration, Barilla and Connecting Food have achieved their set objectives of digitalizing and optimizing processes and strengthening the link with the consumer. With these foundations laid, an expansion to other ingredients and products, in an extended geographical scope, is planned for the future.
The industrial giant has therefore chosen, to embark on traceability, one of its iconic recipes based on simple ingredients but with strict specifications in terms of freshness and quality: Pesto alla Genovese. With this project Barilla is pursuing a double objective: digitalize its supply chain and optimize its processes while strengthening its relationship with consumers.
With this system, the industrialist can ensure real-time traceability at the batch level, anticipate any problems concerning its raw materials (batch recalls, digital audits of specifications, certification management, etc.), and identify any discrepancies between suppliers and different protocols and certificates.
Once structured and cleaned, Barilla can share this information with consumers directly from the packaging. The consumer simply has to scan the QR code on the packaging, enter the lot number to access the web app, which gives them access to augmented and targeted information about the product. They can then find all the information about the product lot by lot (origin, harvest date, CSR commitment, dynamic map of the different actors, etc.).
After a year of collaboration, Barilla and Connecting Food have achieved their set objectives of digitalizing and optimizing processes and strengthening the link with the consumer. With these foundations laid, an expansion to other ingredients and products, in an extended geographical scope, is planned for the future.
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Watch our conference's replay : How to leverage agricultural data through the finished product - Barilla
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par Paola Mangano
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