November 21, 2019 — Are the fancy scallops on the menu really from the North Atlantic?
Reports of mislabeled fish have left some diners wondering if their snapper is really snapper. But with the help of digital data, one New Bedford seafood company has no trouble proving the provenance of its scallops.
Captain Dan Eilertsen’s Nordic Inc. is working with a Fall River fish processor, tech juggernaut IBM and a California restaurant company to use blockchain technology to track scallops from ocean to table.
Just scan a QR code on your restaurant menu and see exactly where the scallops were caught, when, and by whom.
“This is going to be a good way of sustaining our fishing industry and showing people that you can trust where your food comes from,” said Eilertsen, a longtime fisherman and owner of six scallop boats.
One if his vessels, the Venture, is equipped with IBM Food Trust, which creates a permanent, shared record of data about where food comes from and where it’s been. At every step along the way, people enter data into the blockchain.
On board the vessel, scallops get shucked, washed, bagged and weighed. A printer spits out a label with a QR code that goes right on the bag.