The VeChain Foundation has become the first blockchain-based entity to join the China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA).
- According to a Thursday Medium blog post, VeChain joins the 130-strong member group as its only public blockchain technology provider, and will further provide technical and infrastructural support for member firms.
- CAFA is a government-backed organization that falls within the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China and includes of some of the world's most recognizable brands such as MacDonald's and IBM.
- According to the post, CAFA intends to build a "farm to table" traceability system across China that would record the various stages of the food supply process on the blockchain in order to build trust with consumers.
- China has suffered a number of scandals involving food safety – or lack of it – such as counterfeit baby milk and frying oil containing carcinogens.
- CAFA sets out to prevent such incidents from occurring, as well as to ensure animal health.
- VeChain will assist the alliance in the development of its platform by connecting member organizations within China's food supply chain and offering technical support.
- The firm hopes its ToolChain platform will be integrated by the companies into their existing business processes; one firm has already done so, per the blog post.
- VeChain has previously been working with Walmart China and PwC on a similar food tracking initiative, as well as with pharmaceutical giant Bayer China on a new blockchain-based traceability platform to track clinical drugs.