Wendy\u2019s [1] has spent considerable time and money to digitalize data related to its products and systems, however this vast amount of extracted data exists in silos that currently provide little incremental value to the Company. [2] Blockchain technology is a solution that is being used to take these \u201cislands of insight\u201d and pull them into an \u201cintegrated global view\u201d that will ultimately result in a transparent and traceable supply chain. [3]<\/p>\n
Blockchain<\/strong> to improve food safety at Wendy<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s<\/strong><\/p>\n The way the food supply chain works today, there are constant safety issues that are costly in terms of both dollars and lives. Food-borne illnesses account for over 400,000 deaths and costs ranging from $55 to $93 billion in the US each year. [3] When these events occur it is critical to have all the facts about the situation and ultimately to have a clear line of sight into the origin of the event within the supply chain. In December 2015, 55 Chipotle customers in 11 different states developed food poisoning from E.Coli. [5] The chain was unable to identify the source of the outbreak and the FDA required the chain to close 43 restaurants in response to the initial occurrence and the incident was not officially announced as over until February 2016. [6] The incident led to a 13% decline in sales for 2016. [7] One of Wendy\u2019s top priorities is food safety because the inability to trace and track the source of these events can, as shown by Chiptole, lead to significant issues including: more damaging outbreaks, negative publicity, production shutdowns, and ultimately declining operating results. [8]<\/p>\n Blockchain technology has been tagged as the premier solution to this lack of transparency and accountability within the food supply chain. This technology which many may recognize as the basis for bitcoin currency, \u201cis an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.\u201d [9] The technology connects the physical world with the digital world, providing a clear line of sight from the farm to the end user, in seconds, not hours or days. [10] \u201cThe goal of its implementation is to engender trust amongst the parties doing business and the consumers who utilize the Brand.\u201d [11]<\/p>\n