The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium is launching an innovative digital label to make its PDO cheese more traceable and secure.
Developed in collaboration with Kaasmerk Matec (Kaasmerk) and p-Chip Corporation (p-Chip), the new digital technology will offer extra assurance of the cheese’s authenticity for producers, the entire distribution chain, and end consumers.
The traceability of Parmigiano Reggiano is already guaranteed by the casein plaque, introduced by the Consortium in 2002, which is assigned to each wheel at birth.
On the plaque, made of milk proteins – and, therefore, edible and safe – there is a unique and progressive alphanumeric code and a QR code. They act as the identity card of the cheese, which makes it possible to identify its origin.
Tracing Mechanism
The latest innovation combines the casein plaque with the p-Chip micro-transponder, a crypto-anchor blockchain that creates a digital ‘twin’ for physical objects.
This new, scannable tag is smaller than a grain of salt and highly durable, and it offers next-generation traceability technology.
Over the past two years, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has conducted extensive testing of the p-Chip/Kaasmerk Matec casein label and approved its technical use for authentication and digital traceability.
The new digital food ‘smart label’ will be applied to 100,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano in the second quarter of 2022.
This represents the final phase of large-scale testing before evaluating the possibility of extending this technology to all Parmigiano Reggiano production, the consortium added.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest technology news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
