“Consumers are important stakeholders in the process of improving the sustainability of food supply chains”
In this exclusive interview, Maxine Roper, CoFounder of Connecting Food, shares how their collaboration with Migros enhances supply chain transparency. She discusses the challenges of managing data and the role of new technologies like blockchain and AI in driving sustainability
Why did you choose to collaborate with the Migros Group for this round table on data in the food supply chain?
Migros is one of Connecting Food’s customers and a European benchmark for the quality of their private label products. This requirement level for quality as well as their desire to continually improve pushed them to ask themselves the question of the efficiency of their processes. Indeed, despite significant investments in quality controls amounting to millions of € for Migros as for other European retailers, product recalls have steadily increased in Europe over the last few years to reach record levels in 2023.
Migros has therefore understood that the key is to increase visibility into its supply chains and over its supplier base (supply chain transparency) and to implement a predictive approach to risks and anticipation of problems instead of a purely reactive approach.
It is in this context that Migros chose the Connecting Food solution and it is this experience that we want to share during the round table.
What do you see as the biggest challenges in obtaining and exploiting reliable data throughout the supply chain, from producer to consumer?
The difficulty is linked to the need to collect information from a large number of sources, which with different data structures, often coming from non-standardized systems, or which were originally inputted manually so contain errors. This therefore requires setting up a system for collaborative data sharing, capable of normalizing data to a standard enabling a common language.
This is exactly what the Connecting Food solution is capable of doing. Intelligent algorithms enable huge amounts of data to be collected from different sources, verifying for errors and standardising to the GS1 industry standard which is the common language of agrifood industry supply chains.
Can you share concrete examples of use cases where Connecting Food has succeeded in improving transparency and sustainability through the use of data?
Barilla is another of our clients, using our solution to collect data and check compliancy right up to the farm level where the basil is produced for their pesto range. It is possible to sacn the QR code on the pesto jar in 11 different countries, including France and Italy, to see full transparency of the supply chain.
English Tea Shop, also present at the SIAL, uses Connecting Food to collect and audit data from their tea and ingredients suppliers and to showcase their practices and the respect of their commitments to the communities at the farm level. Blockchain increases consumer trust, as a technology third party.
How do new technologies, such as artificial intelligence or blockchain, support your efforts to make supply chains more transparent and sustainable?
Blockchain technology integrated into the Connecting Food solution enables data sharing with consent, while protecting data ownership and managing confidentiality, and of course guarantees the origin of the data and that it remains tamper-proof.
AI will further increase the performance of our digital audit solution (LiveAudit) to audit compliancy to sustainability commitments or quality specs, on an even broader scale.
Connecting Food has huge quantities of supply chain data about products, actors, events, farm practices and traceability. This data will be very important to use in AI modules in the future to increase the speed and capacity to anticipate and predict risks and problems in supply chains.
What role do you see for consumers in using data to improve sustainability in the food supply chain?
Consumers are important stakeholders in the process of improving the sustainability of food supply chains because they can influence through their choices, by favouring more “virtuous” products and by demanding more transparent information. The availability of information on the provenance, practices and carbon footprint of a product is the basis for an informed choice for consumers.
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