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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Blockchain

Podcast: How the DeSci Movement Will Change The World of Food

Do you know what DeSci is?

Don’t feel bad if you don’t, especially if, like me, food is your primary focus.

A16Z’s publication Future describes DeSci as a movement in which “a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are leveraging blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science. Collectively, their work has become known as the decentralized science movement, or DeSci.”

Dr. Jocelynn Pearl

If you haven’t heard of DeSci by now, the reason is that while the trend’s caught the attention of the biotech and research funding worlds, it hasn’t entirely made its way into the future food conversation just yet. 

But it’s only a matter of time, so I figure there’s no better time to learn than now. To help us do that, I invited Dr. Jocelynn Pearl, a biotech scientist, entrepreneur, podcaster, and DeSci expert, onto the podcast. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Pearl and I discuss the following:

  • What is DeSci?
  • How DeSci is changing the insular and outdated world of research publishing
  • The benefits of using Web3 tools like DAOs, blockchain, and NFTs in science research
  • Why DeSci hasn’t yet reached the future food industry just yet and why that may soon change
  • What the future of science research may look like with these types of tools

If you’d like to hear more from Jocelynn, you can find her podcast, the Lady Scientist Podcast, and read some of her writing on her website.

As mentioned in the episode, we are having an event next week on the state of food robotics, and we’d love for you to join us. So get your free ticket here. 

You can listen to the podcast by clicking play below or at the usual podcast spaces such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Giant Black Truffle Goes Up For Sale Via NFT Auction

Renowned French trufficulteur (truffle grower) Bernard Planche has decided to use an NFT auction to sell one of the largest truffles ever unearthed.

Planche, who has been growing truffles for over 30 years, believes putting the giant fungi on the blockchain would prove the truffle’s provenance, quality, and authenticity. According to Planche, he sees the use of NFT as a well to demonstrate how new technology can be used to support and even strengthen long-standing cultural traditions.

The truffle, seen above, is one of the most sought-after edible fungi in the world: the black truffle (tuber melanosporum). With the average black truffle weighing in between 2 to 18 ounces, Planche’s truffle comes in at nearly triple the size of what is considered a typical large truffle. And while it’s not the world’s largest truffle (or even the largest black truffle) ever discovered, its big size puts it in pretty rare company.

The winner of the auction on the Opensea marketplace can pay for the truffle in crypto or everyday money. The winning bidder will not only get the giant truffle and an NFT to prove the big fungi’s authenticity but will also receive a copy of a physical certificate of authenticity (pictured above).

While the auction of a giant truffle via NFT is new, using blockchain as a way to establish food provenance is something startups have been working on for years. A Boston-based started called LegitFish has been working on blockchain traceability solutions since 2018, and Ecogistix has been developing produce traceability solutions using blockchain for at least half a decade.

If you’d like to put a bid in on the giant truffle, you better hurry since the bidding ends Friday. To sweeten the pot, Plance is throwing in a private day of truffle-hunting demonstrations (including searching for truffles with dogs or pigs) on his private estate, the Périgord, followed by a Surprise du Chef dinner.

Kvarøy Arctic Is Using Blockchain Tech and AI To Make Fish Farming More Sustainable

We’ve recently written about land-based aquaculture and cell-cultured seafood, two high-tech production techniques that could help to satisfy rising seafood demand while reducing environmental impacts. But conventional fish farming is still a big part of the picture: Global aquaculture production rose by almost 530% between 1990 and 2018, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Kvarøy Arctic, a third-generation family-owned aquaculture business, has been farming salmon in the Arctic Circle since 1976. Over the last two decades, the company has taken steps to reduce its environmental footprint. Last week, The Spoon got on Zoom with company CEO Alf-Gøran Knutsen to find out how Kvarøy is using tech to work toward that goal.

The company’s biggest innovation has to do with blockchain technology — which Kvarøy is using to boost transparency and traceability, creating a system where customers can hold the company accountable at every step along the journey from roe to packaged fish product.

“We already had a lot of basic data on where the fish were bred, how they were fed, how they were selected,” Knutsen told The Spoon. “But all of this data was fragmented and kept separate.” With the new system, data on the salmon roe, smolt production, in-sea production, harvesting, and processing are consolidated into blocks. Then those blocks are linked together, creating a chain of data that incorporates information from every stage of the fish’s life cycles. By partnering with fish feed producer Biomar, Kvarøy has even made the individual ingredients in its salmon feed traceable on the blockchain.

Kvarøy’s packages are already printed with QR codes, and the company hopes to fully implement the tracing system with its retail partners sometime next year. The data is also helping the company to improve its own practices, boosting efficiency and reducing fish mortality. For instance, the company is currently experimenting with a prototype of a tool that tells the team when to start raising salmon roe in order to sell a certain amount of fish by a certain date.

The company has also found a way to treat its salmon for parasitic sea lice without using antibiotics. Using Oslo-based tech company Stingray Marine Solutions’ laser delousing system, which is powered by machine vision, the Kvarøy team can eliminate lice without harming the salmon or polluting the environment.

In the near future, artificial intelligence may also help Kvarøy to monitor the health of its fish. The company is considering implementing a system that would recognize and track individual salmon, keeping track of wounds and other potential health issues.

Kvarøy estimates that it takes about 1.4 kilograms less carbon and 500 kilograms less water to produce a kilogram of fish than it would to produce the same amount via standard, non-organic aquaculture. Knutsen attributes most of that difference in environmental footprint to Kvarøy’s fish feed: In addition to fishmeal and krill, the company uses plant-based proteins, starches, and oils to feed its fish. “We are always trying to innovate,” Knutsen said. “And we’re always trying to find new ways of sourcing feed closer to where we produce our fish.”

Last year, Kvarøy launched a U.S. brand, placing its products in Whole Foods Markets and other grocery stores. The company is now working on transitioning away from fossil fuel use, and powering more of its operations with renewable electricity. And in the coming year, Knutsen said that the team will work toward the launch of its first land-based fish farm.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, properly managed fish farms can help to maintain and even rebuild fish stocks. Kvarøy’s approach provides an example of how aquaculture businesses can combine generations of experience with tech innovation to have a better impact.

Image Courtesy of Kvarøy Arctic

Dinner DAO is Creating IRL Dinner Clubs Built Around NFTs

After eating at home for much of the past 18 months, most of us are itching to get out into the real world and have dinner with interesting people. If this is you, may I suggest a new way to break bread: An NFT dinner club.

That’s the idea behind Dinner DAO, a new community creating IRL (in real life) dinner clubs using non-fungible tokens.

Here’s how it works: Prospective diners become members of a club – or Dinner DAO (DAO stands for ‘decentralized autonomous organization’) – by buying a Dinner DAO NFT. The cryptocurrency raised during the sale of the NFT is pooled in a shared treasury and used to purchase meals whenever the club gets together throughout the year.

Like many NFTs, Dinner DAO uses Ethereum because of the cryptocurrency’s built-in smart contract functionality. Dinner DAO NFTs are minted using a platform called Unlock, which creates the locks and keys for NFT membership. Membership can take the form of a season pass or even one-off dinner tickets.

Dinner DAOs are location-based, meaning members join together for dinner in a specific city. Members discuss potential restaurants using the Dinner DAO Discord, which acts as the central gathering spot for the community. From there, they vote on where to eat using Snapshot.org, a decentralized voting site popular with the crypto crowd.

The Dinner DAO concept is the brainchild of artist and designer Austin Robey. Robey, who lives in Brooklyn, created the first Dinner DAO NFT for New York City, and the first meal was at a restaurant in Little Italy called Shoo Shoo Nolita. I asked Robey how his club paid for the meal since memberships are purchased in virtual currency and most restaurants want dollars or another government-backed currency. He told me that one of the members of the club had a Coinbase debit card (Coinbase is a company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange, and where many users keep cryptocurrency balances stored in the Coinbase wallet). The group transferred Ether from the pooled treasury to the member’s debit card and Coinbase converted it to US dollars when the bill was paid at the restaurant.

“I think it feels like it would defeat the purpose if everyone’s paying with a Bank of America credit cards,” said Robey.

If this all sounds like a lot of work, it is, at least for those not well-versed in cryptocurrency and NFTs. But for crypto converts, creating a Facebook group and paying for things with a regular credit card goes against the organizing principle of the virtual currency and NFT movement: decentralization. Robey and other Dinner DAO members are ok with taking more time to create a crypto-based dinner club because, in doing so, they are pioneering a new way to meet for a meal without having to rely on big technology companies or banks. In other words, they are getting together in real life by putting their dinner club on the blockchain.

“I have just have been interested in collective ownership within tech and collective governance within tech,” said Robey. “Which is part of the reason why I’ve been excited about digging into things that Unlock can do in the web three in crypto space to enable these new forms of human and corporate organization.”

Those who want to organize a new Dinner DAOs can do so by joining the Dinner DAO Discord and creating a proposal for a new city. Users vote on potential cities and, once awarded, the new Dinner DAO chapter lead will mint an NFT and put it on an exchange such as Opensea. Chapter leads are only allowed to invite two in-real-life friends and the rest must be new acquaintances. Once the eight seats are sold (each Dinner DAO club has a total of eight members), chapter members vote on a location and, finally, get together and eat a meal.

The newest Dinner DAO chapter is in Portland. The city lead is web anthropologist Amber Case, who was attracted to the idea of Dinner DAO because she felt the old-world way of splitting a check was such a pain. In her application for the Portland chapter, Case wrote she had at one point tried to create a dinner club, but “when we looked at the fundraising aspects of it, it quickly became annoying. My former co-founder and I even tried to make a startup to make it easier to split the check! We put that idea on ice while we waited for something better to emerge.”

Almost a decade later, Case has found her something better in Dinner DAO. If you’d like to look into creating a Dinner DAO, you can check out the group’s website.

With New Funding in Hand, TrusTrace Looks To Make Supply Chains More Sustainable

Supply chain is the buzz phrase filling daily news headlines related to empty supermarket shelves and this year’s hottest toys being in short supply. Specifically, one longer-term issue is the traceability of products—especially food and other perishables—as consumers become increasingly conscious of their health and the environment.

Companies such as Stockholm-based TrusTrace are among those who are applying a combination of technologies to empower suppliers and consumers in the flow of information from field or processing plant to table. To further its growth in this space, the company recently received a $6 million investment from Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital. The funds will be used for product development, global expansion, and building out the company’s management team.


“TrusTrace enables product-level traceability and supply chain transparency to drive better, more sustainably-conscious and socially responsible sourcing decisions,” said Shameek Ghosh, CEO, and Co-Founder of TrusTrace said in an interview with The Spoon. “With this latest funding round, we will continue leveraging cutting-edge technology and the best minds in the industry to achieve positive, restorative change for people and the planet.”

Consumer interest in the details about the origins of their various foods is becoming more than just a nice-to-have. According to research by ADM, the trend had been growing for several years with the pandemic, and it’s the associated concerns about health and safety, acting as a catalyst for a greater understanding of what is in everything from farm-fresh tomatoes to canned string beans. Global supplier ADM discovered 58% of global consumers would be more concerned with locality claims because of COVID-19. In addition, ADM reports that 38% of global consumers will back their interest in sustainability with their wallets and pay more for verified products.

Among the details of sustainability, tracing include place of origin, ingredients, the use of chemicals, processing stops along the route, and other factors related to the environment.


TrusTrace hopes to expand beyond its current client base, including Coop, a Swedish retail chain. As Ghosh explains, one of TrusTrace’s signature advantages is that it fully integrates with a client’s ERP system using blockchain and its own proprietary technology. Being connected to Coop’s inventory management system allows TrusTrace to collect accurate information to document sustainability, which measures ten different parameters across 10,000 food products. In simple terms, TrusTrace creates a mapping of a product’s supply chain, which allows a customer to know essential details about a given product.


In the case of Coop, consumers can use an application that deploys a scanner to investigate the sustainability of a product and manifest that information in an easy-to-read diagram. The parameters used by Coop via its TrusTace implementation are based on an agreement by the county’s leading companies in conjunction with The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).


Ghosh hopes to bring TrusTrace to major retailers across Europe in the coming months and is even eyeing the United States as a potential target. At issue, he explains, is the need for national consensus on specific areas to measure to create a helpful mapping. The lack of a universal agreement in sustainability will be a hindrance to educating consumers worldwide.


TrusTrace is not alone in looking to cash in on this trend. Other companies in this space include Alpharetta, GA-based Aptean, IBM with its Food Trust product, and New York-based ripe.io

Taco Bell Issued NFTs for Digital Taco Art

Taco Bell jumped aboard the NFT bandwagon this week, releasing five pieces of “limited” digital art on the blockchain.

A quick primer for those unfamiliar with the latest fad sweeping the internet. NFT stands for non-fungible token, and it uses blockchain technology to create scarcity and authenticity for specific digital items. NFTs have generated a lot of headlines and hype over the past few weeks. Musician Grimes made $5.8 million selling digital art, but that number was dwarfed this week when artist Beeple sold a piece of digital art for $69 million at auction.

This is a food tech blog, so we won’t spend much time going into whether spending money on literally nothing is a solid investment or not. But we can say that Taco Bell is the first food brand we’ve encountered trying to ride the coattails of the NFT hype machine.

Taco Bell announced its NFT art sale on March 7 with the following tweet:

The art was sold on the Rarible marketplace, and according to The Verge, the 25 tokens it put up were sold within a half hour. The good news is that this wasn’t strictly a cash grab. According to Taco Bell’s listing on Rarible, “100% of the profits earned from this sale will be donated to Taco Bell Foundation, Inc. to empower youth to discover and pursue their career and educational pathways.”

Will we see more restaurant brands jump into the NFT game? Probably depends on how long this particular fad lasts. A lot of attention is being paid to this nascent NFT space right now, but as more players — especially big corporate brands — get in on the action, that is usually when the public sours on a trend.

But who knows? Maybe we’ll see Impossible Foods release some Heme-based digital art NFTs sometime soon.

FoodTech Intelligence Brief: Evaluating Permanency of COVID Related Behavior Change

And now, with most countries trying to reboot their economies, food-related companies have the challenge of determining which behavioral changes were temporary and permanent. 

Many of the temporary surge behaviors were related to the worries among the population around shortages, causing many people to go out and buy things.

A good example is rice. Rice is shelf-stable, cheap food, something people might horde during uncertain times. 

Here’s a Google Trends graph for the search term “Buy Rice”: 

It’s probably safe to say that rice buying was driven by consumers who wanted cheap, easy to make, shelf-stable food during an uncertain time. Chances are, many consumers will not buy as much rice in the future.

This Food Tech Intelligence Brief is available to Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here. 

FoodLogiQ, IBM Food Trust, ripe.io and SAP Demonstrate Successful Interoperability in Food Traceability

Information standards company GS1 US announced today the completion of a proof-of-concept in which multiple traceability systems successfully interoperated when following a product through a supply chain. This first part of a multi-phase trial included blockchain, cloud and other technologies from FoodLogiQ, IBM Food Trust, ripe.io and SAP.

GS1 is a non-profit that creates global unique numbering and identification systems, barcodes, Electronic Product Code-based RFID and more for supply chains. Using the GS1 standard, FoodLogiQ, IBM Food Trust, ripe.io and SAP simulated a seafood supply chain and shared data with one another. According to the press announcement, the group was able to communicate with one another about critical events in the supply chain such as when a product was shipped, received, packed or transformed.

In a FoodLogiQ blog post, FoodLogiQ CEO, Sean O’Leary said, “The adoption of traceability in the food industry is reaching a tipping point. With the successful completion of this proof-of-concept, we have demonstrated that regardless of the underlying technology being used to house the data, whether blockchain or other enterprise database technologies, food companies will be able to connect their systems to achieve the holy grail of whole chain traceability.”

In a nutshell, food traceability won’t be locked into or reliant on one particular technology. Different systems in the supply chain will be able to talk with one another to provide insights and verification as a product moves throughout the supply chain.

Now the coalition of companies is moving on the next proof-of-concept phase, which is adding suppliers, distributors, retailers and foodservice operators to see how it will work in a real-world setting. After the proof-of-concept phase is complete, the next step will be to understand data requirements and see if any new protocols are required for interoperability.

The global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted shortcomings and faults in our existing food supply chain. Successful demonstrations of technology interoperability like the one announced today can help create a more robust, transparent and hopefully resilient supply chain going forward.

Food Tech News: Nestlé Expands Coffee Blockchain, Uber Expands Eats for Business

How are you all doing out there? I’m starting to get into a bit of a weekend routine: walk, bake bread (then Instagram it, of course), read, sleep. And read food tech news, of course. This week we’ve got stories on Nestlé’s new blockchain application, Chilean plant-based food startup NotCo’s layoffs, and Uber’s plans to expand Eats for Business globally. Enjoy!

Nestlé brings blockchain to its Zoégas coffee brand
Food giant Nestlé announced this week that it’s partnering with The Rainforest Alliance to expand its IBM Food Trust blockchain technology to its Zoégas coffee brand (thanks for the tip, FoodDive). With blockchain, consumers will be able to scan a QR code on their bag of coffee to trace its journey and see which country it came from. They’ll also be able to access information about the farmers, general time of harvest, and when the beans were roasted at  Zoégas’s factory in Sweden. 

Photo: Eats for Business

Uber for Business to expand Eats to 20+ countries
Uber for Business, a platform which targets corporations, announced this week that it will expand its food delivery component, Eats for Business, to more than 20 countries this year (h/t Techcrunch). First up: Brazil, Canada, France and the U.K., which all launched last week. Uber started Business for Uber in 2014 to help companies better facilitate rides for their employees and clients, and in 2018 added a corporate version of its Uber Eats food delivery app. Uber Eats reportedly decided on this expansion since more employees are working from home in the wake of COVID-19 and don’t have access to catered office foods.

Photo: NotCo

Chilean plant-based food startup NotCo shutters production plant
NotCo, a Chilean startup making plant-based foods like mayonnaise, milk, and ice cream, has announced it will close its NotMayo production plant in Santiago, Chile. According to Contxto, over half of the startup’s staff has been laid off. But the company isn’t shutting down altogether — production of its vegan NotMayo product will be passed onto an unnamed third party.

GrainChain Raises $8.2 Million for its Commodities Blockchain Solution

GrainChain, which uses a combination of blockchain, IoT and the cloud to help manage the logistics around commodities purchasing and transportation, has raised an $8.2 million Series A round of funding. Medici Ventures, the blockchain accelerator arm of Overstock.com, invested $5 million in the round, and was joined by Eden Block and other investors. This brings the total amount raised by GrainChain to $11.45 million to date.

What GrainChain does is pretty complex, but at its core, the company uses blockchain to create smart contracts that help track the flow of commodities (think: corn, soy, black pepper, coffee) from the farm through the supply chain. Once a commodity arrives at a food processing operation, GrainChain’s platform works with different IoT-enabled services to grade the quality of each item, as well as provide data around temperature and humidity while in storage, with blockchain providing all of the authentication.

Once a grading occurs and pricing is set, GrainChain’s software will then facilitate payment to the farmer, the trucker, and any party associated with the smart contract.

For a more in-depth and specific example of GrainChain in action, check out the article my colleague, Catherine Lamb wrote last year about the service being used with coffee farms in Honduras.

GrainChain is among a host of tech startups looking to make the food supply chain more transparent and efficient. Blockchain in particular has been used for tracking E. coli outbreaks and seafood labeling. Companies like AgShift are using computer vision and the cloud to assist with unbiased food grading. And Varcode creates temperature-sensitive, blockchain-based barcodes to track the cold chain.

GrainChain says that it has 2,500 participants on its system right now across the U.S., Mexico and Honduras. The company will use the new funding for product development and expansion into more countries.

GrainChain Brews Up Blockchain Tracking Platform for Honduras’ Coffee Farmers

This week GrainChain, maker of a software platform that helps track and manage agricultural commodities, launched a platform designed to help optimize the coffee supply chain in Honduras while putting more money in the pockets of farmers.

GrainChain tracks the coffee-making process from every possible step and angle. Farmers go to their local coffee cooperative to sign up to the platform and download the app (according to GrainChain CEO Luis Macias, who spoke to me over the phone this week, almost all farmers have access to smartphones).

After that they’re in the GrainChain ecosystem. Farmers can use the app to track their purchases of seeds, equipment, and more at local vendors, and also use it as a sort of digital wallet to procure short-term financing from local banks.

From there, GrainChain tracks the entire growing process. It sends out auditors into the farmer’s fields to make sure they’re growing everything with the necessary practices (i.e. no pesticides if they’re growing organic beans). When the beans are ready, they’re sent to a GrainChain-partnered warehouse where sensors sort the beans by quality and then track them as they’re dried and prepared for shipment at a local cooperative (also partnered with GrainChain). Once the sale is made the app automatically subtracts any loans from the farmer and pays it back to the banks. The rest goes instantly into the farmer’s pocket.

Photo: GrainChain

Previously, all of these touchpoints and verifications would be monitored individually and communicated piecemeal. That led to miscommunications and delayed shipments — which, in turn, delayed payments to farmers.

GrainChain, however, hopes to streamline the very fragmented coffee supply chain. The platform cuts down on middlemen and administrative legwork while tracking all transactions and verifications in one place. It can also unite bankers, insurers, coffee cooperatives, exporters and farmers all onto a single unified system and facilitate communication between the various players.

For the farmer, that translates to more access to funds from banks and quicker payments for their beans. For the purchaser, it’s a way to guarantee they’re actually getting organic or fair trade beans. Macas didn’t get into this, but it also seems like a smart marketing angle on the consumer end. Since they can track the journey of each batch of beans, coffee brands could leverage the transparency to add a personal touch to their beans — and charge the consumer more for them.

GrainChain is based in McAllen, Texas and last year raised a $2.5 million venture round. They began offering tracking services in 2013 and launched their first fully blockchain-enabled product in 2018. Their platforms are currently in use in the U.S. and Mexico, and the Honduran platform already has quite a few participants. According to Macias, about 160,000 coffee sacks headed out of the Honduras region over the next year will be powered by GrainChain’s software (that’s about 2 percent of the market). The platform is free for farmers to use but costs a fee for the insurer, the bank, the exporter and the cooperative

Blockchain has been heralded as a magic bullet to solve everything from E. Coli outbreaks to inaccurate seafood labeling to wine fraud. In the coffee world specifically, Starbucks has begun experimenting with the technology to trace coffee beans’ journey from “bean to cup” so consumers can see exactly where their cup of joe was grown.

But GrainChain is one of the first instances I’ve seen that uses blockchain to actually help the farmers themselves. And with the struggles of declining coffee prices and climate change, coffee farmers need all the help they can get.

Food Tech News: Morningstar Goes Vegan, Smart Cheesemaker Fromaggio Launches Kickstarter

This week’s food tech news roundup starts out with a tale of two cheeses. On one hand, we have Morningstar, which has pledged to make all their products vegan over the next two years (cheese and all). On the other, we have Fromaggio, a smart cheesemaking device which just launched on Kickstarter, and which will allow you to make cheese from scratch in your own kitchen.

Kind of makes you hungry, right? Well go make a grilled cheese sandwich (vegan or not) and settle in to read our latest missive from the world of food tech news. In addition to all the cheese, this week we’ve got stories on canned tuna blockchain and a new tool that’ll tell you what wine to pair with your recipes. Enjoy!

Photo: Morningstar Farms.

Morningstar Farms to go 100% vegan by 2021
This week Morningstar Farms, which is owned by Kellogg, pledged to make its product line completely vegan by 2021. The company already sells plant-based products — from veggie breakfast sausage to burger patties — but will stop using eggs and dairy. Morningstar Farms is also debuting a vegan “Cheezeburger” at Expo West this week, which is their vegan Meat Lovers patty topped with dairy-free “cheddar.” This shift is a strategic move on Morningstar’s part to hone in on blossoming demand for plant-based products, especially protein.

Photo: Fromaggio Kickstarter.

Smart cheesemaking device Fromaggio launches on Kickstarter
For those who aren’t avoiding dairy, you might consider backing Fromaggio, a smart countertop cheesemaker that launched on Kickstarter this week. We’ve been fans of Fromaggio since we got to sample its tasty products at our Food Tech Live event at CES this past January. Cheese-lovers can snag a Fromaggio for $299 (the $249 level has already sold out), with estimated delivery in March 2020 (though we all know the struggle of crowdfunded hardware). The Fromaggio will retail for $579.

 

Photo by Thomas Martinsen on Unsplash

Allrecipes has a new tool that will recommend wine pairings
This Tuesday Meredith, owner of recipe recommendation site Allrecipes, unveiled a new tool that will recommend wine pairings to go with certain recipes in their database (h/t Digiday). Wine recommendations will be shoppable in U.S. states where it’s legal. The tool is part of Meredith’s partnership with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, a vintner in Washington State (where Allrecipes is based), and will initially have 17 Ste. Michelle wines available.

Photo: Bumblebee.

Bumble Bee Foods and Carrefour use blockchain to track tuna and milk
It was quite the week for food companies to experiment with blockchain — though I suppose with buzz around the new technology, it’s always quite the week. Bumble Bee Foods announced that it has been piloting a program which uses blockchain to trace its yellowfin tuna from the time it’s caught until when it arrives on store shelves (h/t Fortune).

Over in Europe, Carrefour stated that it will soon begin rolling out a new product, Carrefour Quality Line (CQL) milk, which uses blockchain to provide increased traceability. Consumers can scan a QR code on CQL milk and get information about where the cows were milked, and when it arrived on retail shelves.

Did we miss anything? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech to clue us in on any food tech news!