The identity card of the Grana Padano Dop of the Torre Pallavicina dairy.
Better still, an entire album that tells its story in detail, from the premises, i.e. from the field and the stable, before its production, up to its arrival on tables all over the world.
An ambitious goal, achieved thanks to blockchain technology , which allows the entire supply chain of the main Italian dairy PDO product to be traced in a certain, secure and immutable way. The Torre Pallavicina dairy, a cooperative that brings together 21 milk producers, is the first to guarantee the traceability of the Grana Padano Dop supply chain through the blockchain.
The substantial difference of the Torre Pallavicina project compared to other "traditional" projects, or other blockchain projects carried out up to now, is that in Torre Pallavicina, through the use of the ChoralChain blockchain solution, ten " smart contracts " have been created that follow the entire supply chain, starting from forage and feed on farms, to the transfer of milk via tankers, to internal processes in the dairy, ending with the storage and maturing of the Grana Padano wheels. Each smart contract is able, completely automatically and in real time, to receive data from the implemented electronic devices and perform a data validity check; if these do not comply with the set parameters, the system sends an alert notification.
Data entry into the system takes place for farmers through an app , which allows the collection of information on animal feed, and for transporters through a GPS device, installed on each tanker used for the daily collection of milk, which tracks routes, stages, timetables and movements. In the dairy, the individual production lots are identified and mapped. All the information on a single wheel is associated with the casein plaque (a disk with an alphanumeric code) supplied by the Consortium for the protection of Grana Padano Dop. In the maturing warehouse, an innovative plate vision technology, based on Artificial Intelligence , makes it possible to characterize each form of Grana Padano.
Each smart contract "mints", in real time, an NFT digital certificate on the Algorand blockchain, consequently each single wheel of Grana Padano identified by the casein plaque is associated with ten NFT digital certificates. ChoralChain also "coins" two further NFTs, which Torre Pallavicina makes available to customers and consumers, guaranteeing interoperability with the other blockchains.
Thanks to the blockchain, the mass of information is available quickly, in real time, offering enormous added value in terms of transparency, sustainability and food safety. “It is a guarantee for all our customers - explains the president of Torre Pallavicina Gianmaria Bettoni -, we have created the digital identity card of the product: the complete digitization of the supply chain and the use of the blockchain make it possible to trace all the sensitive data of the supply chain on an immutable register, guaranteeing access to the players in the supply chain, including consumers. We are thus able to ensure the highest levels of transparency , especially for the origin and quality of our production, generating trust and therefore value and differentiation for our Grana Padano. In the system conceived, no alterations or modifications to the shape are envisaged, the simple reading of the casein plaque allows you to identify each individual product, associating it with your own digital certificate. It is also an open blockchain, capable of communicating and interconnecting with other blockchain ecosystems both downstream and upstream of the supply chain".
To carry out the project, Torre Pallavicina made use of the best partners present on the world market today: Euranet, Algorad and CSQA.
The model was developed using Euranet's ChoralChain 4.0 platform, which uses the public blockchain Algorand, a technology partner among the first and best in the field of digital compliance and a leader in recognizing the intrinsic value of blockchain as a potential source for digital transformation for both businesses and processes. “The use of ChoralChain helps to enhance traceability and protect the certified production of the Torre Pallavicina dairy - says the president of Euranet Gianpaolo Sara -, protecting territorial authenticity and helping the consumer make an informed choice through the NFTs generated on the Algorand blockchain. ChoralChain surpasses the manual or semi-manual information collection systems already in use, which have proven to be time consuming and vulnerable to tampering attempts”.
Cosimo Bassi, solutions architect of Algorand echoes him: “It is surprising to observe how an organization of the caliber of Torre Pallavicina recognizes the transformative power of the blockchain for its sector, through the use of Euranet's ChoralChain traceability solution. Algorand technology is open source and designed to be transparent, secure and fast – key components for any modern supply chain.”
"For CSQA, a leading certification body in the agri-food sector, this is a pilot project - declares Michele Zema, CSQA sales manager -, which focuses on the digital innovation of the supply chain of the first Italian DOP product and which can become a model for the enhancement of all the excellence of Made in Italy".
The project was presented on Friday 30 September as part of B2Cheese in Bergamo, the national b2b dairy fair.