Bumble Bee Foods and SAP Create Blockchain to Track Fresh Fish from Ocean to Table

AUSTIN, Texas— SAP SE and Bumble Bee Foods, North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, has announced Bumble Bee Foods is using the SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service to trace the journey of yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to the dinner table. Together, SAP and Bumble Bee continue to innovate and improve upon seafood traceability as more and more consumers demand to know their food is safe and sustainably sourced. This announcement was made at SXSW, taking place March 8–17 in Austin, Texas.

With SAP’s blockchain technology, consumers and customers will be able to easily access the complete origin and history of Bumble Bee Foods’ Natural Blue by Anova yellowfin tuna simply by using their smartphones to scan a QR code on the product package. With the snap of a code, the blockchain technology provides instant information about the fish-to-market journey, including the size of the catch, point of capture and the fishing community that caught it, as well as valuable insights to verify authenticity, freshness, safety, fair trade fishing certification and sustainability.

“With SAP, we have the ability to track fish the moment it’s caught and as it travels around the world, telling the story of each tuna while positively impacting ecosystems and the lives of the people all the way down the line,” Bumble Bee Foods chief information officer Tony Costa said. “Bumble Bee has long been an industry leader in tracing its seafood products, and the addition of SAP’s blockchain technology allows us to further elevate our efforts in complete transparency with consumers and customers, providing assurance that their fish is fresh and it’s been sourced fairly according to our commitments to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.”

Blockchain technology allows companies such as Bumble Bee Foods to store data and create a tamper-proof supply chain history, which can be shared and seen by each participant. For Bumble Bee, blockchain is the safest possible way to share data between parties because it is incorruptible and verifiable. Bumble Bee is the first food company to incorporate SAP blockchain technology into its production.

“This solution is an example of how blockchains can be used to revolutionize the future of food,” said Oliver Betz, global head and senior VP of SAP Innovative Business Solutions, part of SAP Digital Business Services. “It creates transparency and traceability across the food supply chain, from the ocean, across the cold chain, to the warehouse, store and our table. When we help enterprises like Bumble Bee to make innovation real, we support the consumer’s need to know and reinforce their faith in the brands they trust.”

SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain enables customers, partners and developers to conveniently use this distributed ledger technology. It allows enterprises to build new solutions, as well as extensions for existing applications across industries and lines of business.

Bumble Bee Foods’ Natural Blue by Anova fair-trade certified ahi tuna steaks can be found in a 12 oz. bag at retailers nationwide including Albertsons, Hy-Vee, Price Chopper and Safeway.

To find out more about the project, watch a video and read “From Ocean to Table – Bumble Bee Uses Blockchain to Trace Your Fish.”

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About Bumble Bee Foods

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, headquartered in San Diego, is North America’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, offering a full line of canned and pouched tuna, salmon, sardine and specialty protein products marketed in the U.S. under leading brands including Bumble Bee, Anova, Brunswick, Snow’s, Wild Selections and Beach Cliff, and in Canada under the Clover Leaf brand. Bumble Bee’s mission is to provide healthy and nutritious products and meal solutions that are sourced sustainably. The company actively promotes the responsible stewardship of global fisheries resources and is a founder of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) — a global partnership of scientists, tuna processors and WWF, the global conservation organization. For more information on Bumble Bee, visit www.BumbleBee.com. Join fans of Bumble Bee and healthy living at www.facebook.com/BumbleBeeSeafoods and follow us on Twitter at @BumbleBeeFoods, Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/BumbleBeeFoods and Instagram at @BumbleBeeFoods.

About SAP

As the cloud company powered by SAP HANA, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77 percent of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 425,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.