“We ensure that all information in a production chain is available, so that it is clear where, under what circumstances and by whom the products were made. And especially that this information can be trusted. With our technology, consumers now also have more background information available about the farmers, the environment and the animals behind the eggs they want to buy.” – Leontien Hasselman-Plugge, CEO Supply Chain Information Management –
Albert Heijn has the ambition to make all fresh supply chains transparent by 2025. The animal welfare ambition is to continually strive to improve the wellbeing of their egg laying chickens. Therefore, the requirement is now to deliver at least a 1-star BLK certification for all eggs sold at their stores.
The Challenge
On top of transparency and animal welfare Albert Heijn wants to assure their consumers continuously about the provenance, the claims and the product information. They turned to ImpactBuying as their technology partner to make this happen. The key challenge was to facilitate the supply chain partners into transparency, animal welfare and consumer information.in the fast-changing international consumer goods markets. In 1993, she founded Précon Food Safety Systems, that became market leader in the implementation of risk management systems (HACCP) for the food and retail sector. Her next company was ISACert, an accredited Certification Body with 300 auditors, represented in 16 countries, including China. She supported the development of several audit standards and started specialising in social compliance and human rights. With her knowledge and insights of international supply chain practices, Marjan founded Supply Chain Information Management (SIM) in 2009 to help retailers and brands creating transparency in their supply chains. In 2020 she co-founded ImpactBuying, developing consultancy and training products for helping clients to move from compliancy towards ensuring Proven Positive Impact. In 2021, the product portfolio of SIM and ImpactBuying merged into ImpactBuying bv. Marjan is a dedicated social entrepreneur, determined to make a difference.
The Solution
Blockchain technology adds a level of truth, that all partners have access to at all times and at the same time. Therefore, we decided to develop a blockchain solution for the egg supply chain (from feed to fork). The Powerchain solution provides transparency about the product performance on its journey through the supply chain and the performance of all the actors. Data is captured and shared in detail through every step of the supply chain by every supply chain partner. For example about the living conditions of the chickens, the type of feeding and stable light schedules at farm level. This way risk areas like food safety, quality, animal welfare and environmental conditions are captured at batch level. All this information is logged into the Powerchain and now also made assessable to consumers, they can check this data at the individual egg. The number on the egg gives the unique farm.
FInd out where your eggs comes from.
Identification and links to the detailed information like the expiry date, the route of the eggs and the conditions of the chickens at the time of egg laying.
The data logged to ImpactBuying Powerchain creates a connection between consumer and farmer. All participants are dedicated to strive for continuous improvements and that commitment is also made visible on the website. Consumers can learn about the farmers and their stories. This can be checked by the consumer per individual egg.
ImpactBuying is the technology partner that verifies the data on supply chain partners, the product and the batches and we make sure the data is timely, accurate and complete. This can be seen by all actors including the consumer. The role of ImpactBuying is to facilitate the discussion and consensus of which data to share with which supply chain partner. ImpactBuying designs and develops its own blockchain solution.
The Partners
ImpactBuying believes in collaboration and we enjoyed working with the following partners:
