One of the largest retail groups in France, Carrefour has announced new moves in the country that will see blockchain technology used to track milk from local farms, right up through the journey until the milk lands on a supermarket shelf, improving audit trails and the traceability of dairy products that enter Carrefour stores, generally improving transparency and of course, the service that Carrefour provides its customers.

We’ve tried to think of a few cheesy jokes, but the title is all yoghurt? You get? No?

Really trying not to milk it now…

Anyway, this is a great example of how blockchain technology can be applied to our day to day lives, it’s not all just Bitcoin you know! According to recent reports, this latest move by Carrefour will focus on the Carrefour Quality Line (high end brand of milk) Micro-filtered full fat milk. Each product in this line will carry a QR code that customers can scan in order to interact with the blockchain based audit trail. The QR code will divert customers to a blockchain hosted application that will let the customer read more about the animal that their milk came from, including where the animal was reared and even what sort of diet the animal was fed.

Why is this important?

Some might accuse Carrefour of giving away too much information in this, is it really that important that we can see the intricate details about our food? To some people, perhaps not, but at the moment, without blockchain technology we don’t have the luxury of choice. With this, Carrefour are giving those that are interested a very clear way to find out more about the sources of their food. If you don’t want to know about the animal that your milk came from, you don’t have to interact with it and you don’t have to read up on it.

It’s all about transparency and democracy, giving people the option and the choice to learn more about their food - this is when blockchain technology really comes into its own. It’s a technology that can be used by everyone without being forced upon anyone. Carrefour are simple making use of an available technology that will improve service for some of their customers, we can only see this as a good thing.