“We decided to experiment with the blockchain for the Grana Padano PDO supply chain as we want to guarantee consumers, by using the most advanced technology, the highest quality against counterfeiting. Manufacturers are absolutely able to cope with 4.0 industrial technology, as is confirmed by this typical Italian cheese being once again the most consumed PDO product in the world.”
This is how the General Manager of the Grana Padano PDO protection Consortium, Stefano Berni, summed up the Consortium commitment to experimenting with the new IT procedure in the grated cheese supply chain during ‘Blockchain Plaza Case History’. This is a round table reserved for the first four Italian agri-food companies to have experimented with it as part of the new project conceived by CSQA – Europe’s leading certification body for the agri-food sector – and Euranet – a consulting and compliance technology company.
UNCHANGEABLE, COMPLETE AND CORRECT INFORMATION
The blockchain aims to guarantee in an unchangeable and complete way all the information concerning the production chain offering a guarantee tool to everyone, from retailers to consumers. According to Grana Padano PDO Consortium – which in 2018 confirmed its world leadership among PDOs with 4,932,996 cheese wheels produced and export sales increased to 1,938,328 wheels – the level of transparency would therefore increase through the unchangeability of the data.
For each pack these concern breeder, milk carrier, processor, maturer and grater, with greater guarantees and protection both to consumer and to the members of the Consortium involved in the supply chain against counterfeiting and similar sounding.
GRANA PADANO PDO FOLLOWING THE EVOLUTION OF TASTE
Moreover, blockchain would facilitate periodic controls allowing operators in the supply chain to enter data directly and operating on data flows and computer systems with the system supervision ChoralTrust of CSQA. The blockchain has proved to be useful for the production of Grana Padano PDO which, faithful to its history, follows the evolution of taste.
“Respecting tradition – says Mr. Berni – Grana Padano PDO will gradually become a more and more modern product, because it is leaner and tastier but less salty, beneficial for blood pressure and for the assimilation of calcium, increasingly digestible, suitable for vegetarians, strictly linked to its territory and its forage and without preservatives.”