← Food Safety Matters
Food Safety Matters
Ep. 216. Sandro Tarchini: Driving Global Food Traceability, Authenticity with Blockchain
01:02:57
Loading summary
Transcript85 lines
- [00:00]
A
The presenting sponsor of Food Safety Matters is cdg, the chlorine dioxide company. As part of today's episode, listeners will hear from Patrick Schneider, vice president of operations and engineering for cdg, about the powerful role chlorine dioxide can play in your sanitation protocols. You can also visit their website, CDGE Environmental to learn more
- [00:26]
B
Foreign.
- [00:36]
A
Hello everyone, and welcome to Food Safety Matters, the podcast for food safety professionals. I'm Stacy Atchison, publisher, Food Safety magazine, and I'm joined by my co hosts, Adrienne Bloom, our editorial director, and Bob Ferguson, president of Strategic consulting. So, in addition to hearing from the three of us, as usual, you'll also be hearing from today's featured interview guest. So, Adrian, maybe you can tell us a little bit about our guest.
- [01:03]
C
Yeah, so today I'm talking with Sandro Tarquini from the Cardano foundation, and we're discussing all things blockchain, which is a topic that you'll likely start hearing about more often, related to traceability, food fraud, and food safety and quality. So stay tuned for Sandro's insights.
- [01:20]
A
Always a very interesting topic is blockchain. Something to wrap your head around it.
- [01:27]
C
Sheesh.
- [01:28]
A
Okay, so thank you, Adrian, and you know, I can't believe it. This is the last episode that we'll be recording before the Food Safety Summit, in case you haven't heard. Wink, wink. If you're a regular listener, of course you have heard. The Summit is being held May 11th through the 14th in easily accessible and affordable Rosemont, Illinois, just a stone's throw from O' Hare International Airport, which that's the easily accessible part, in case you were wondering. And I guess I would add that once you're in Rosemont, nothing is really too far away. So that does make for very nice accessing at the conference, as well as running into other attendees kind of everywhere. Some of my summit highlight moments are the things that happen by chance, kind of on our expanded campus of Rosemont. So that's always fun. So even if you haven't made plans yet, there's still time for you to join us. And for you, our dear podcast listeners, remember, there's still a way to save big when you register using the very special discount code FSMATTERS20, which saves you 20% off all Summit packages. Three day, two day, one day expo only. And as I mentioned last time, that doesn't include the certification courses, but they have their own discount packages. So fear or not? Fear not. There's some great Cirque courses, too, some new freshly minted ones that you should take a look at our team, we just, actually, we all just got off a team meeting, so that was pretty awesome. And we have such a great team. There's so many people doing such great work to bring this together, as you might imagine, it takes a lot. Takes a lot of great people doing really good work. So we're putting together all the finishing touches on this year's event and I'm getting more and more excited. We have some new features in the Expo hall. Have I mentioned there's a beer garden? Thank you to QAD Red Zone for their sponsorship. We've also arranged for two guided tours of the exhibit hall. One is for food safety technology and AI exhibitors on Wednesday and sanitation and hygiene exhibitors on Thursday. The tours will be led by members of our educational advisory board. And we're really excited about this new offering. So you can learn more on the website under the exhibit hall tab. That's foodsafetysummit.com if you look for the exhibit hall tab, you'll see guided tours. Click on that. And there's all kinds of information. So there's networking, of course, but the absolute core of our event is our world class program. And I can't do it justice here. I try again and again with a few mentions, but there is way too much, too many great sessions with carefully crafted panels that make sure that you leave the summit with actionable information. So visit foodsafetysummit.com and take a look at the Summit's Educational advisory board. These are the industry leaders who have carefully curated the program for you for this moment, for today's challenges and solutions. So we hope that you'll join us if you can't get there this year. Remember, we do offer a few live stream sessions. I will add a link in the show notes so that you can register for those. They are free to attend. And oh my God, it's kind of the last official podcast call. But Register today@foodsafetysummit.com you'll be glad you did. Use fsmatters20 when you register and save 20% off the summit. We look forward to seeing you there. I did it again. We did it. We're here. Time for the news. And Bob and Adrian will be there in our podcast theater. Didn't even spend, you know, paragraphs on that, but always fun.
- [05:23]
D
We're still right by the beer hall, right? We talked about that before.
- [05:26]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [05:27]
D
That's a requirement.
- [05:27]
A
Yeah,
- [05:30]
E
absolutely. All right, so to kick off things
- [05:32]
C
today with the news, we begin with the presidential budget for fiscal year 2020. 7 in the US which proposes 20.8 billion in base discretionary funding for the USDA and 1 10.5 billion in funding for the Department of Health and human services, or HHS. So these amounts actually represent decreases of 19% and 12% respectively from fiscal year 2026. So USDA phases pretty sizable program cuts and eliminations, including formula grants for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Agricultural Marketing Service. However, the budget would secure 1.46 billion in funding for the Food Safety and Inspection Service, or fsis, which is similar to the budget requested in fiscal year 2026. And $1.1 billion in discretionary funding has been requested for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or aphis. So for hhs, the presidential budget names Make America Healthy Again or MAHA as a significant investment across HHS agencies. So FDA's Human Foods Program is marked to receive $1.28 billion in budget in fiscal year 2027, representing more than 108 million over the previous fiscal year's enacted level, and of this increase, 65.5 million reportedly came from reduction to the federal bureaucracy during the current fiscal year. This budget also includes 57 million for FDA to support MAHA initiatives across the agency, including the evaluation of new and existing food chemicals, the expansion of the Closer to Zero initiative, support for AI and machine learning initiatives, also strengthening data systems used in food safety oversight and the development of models to predict PFAS levels in food producing animals and the closure of regulatory loopholes for grass determinations, among other items. Investments related to inspections include 9 million to support transitioning routine domestic food safety inspections to states, and another 9 million to increase the Office of Inspection and Investigations inspectional capacity through a variety of different initiatives. The HHS total budget proposal also includes 55 million for new infection prevention and Healthy and safe food initiatives within the cdc, which would tackle antimicrobial resistance and help address nanoplastics and microplastics in food and water. However, the proposed budget would slash EEPA funding by 52% to 4.2 billion, including a 25% cut to chemicals programs, leaving just over 293 million and approximately 1,400 states staff for chemical and pesticide reviews. And going back to the inspections piece, FDA recently announced an initiative targeting how the agency conducts inspections. The Better Regulatory Inspections for Dynamic Government Efficiency, or BRIDGE Project, is an initiative designed to update and streamline food facility inspections. FDA will evaluate new tools and approaches to improve the efficiency, consistency and and data integration of inspections across jurisdictions. This includes exploring digital technologies and risk based Methods to better target inspection resources. FDA says the Bridge Project is intended to address long standing challenges with variability in inspection practices and limitations in data sharing between federal, state and local partners. So by improving how inspection data are collected and analyzed, the agency aims to strengthen oversight and enable more proactive risk management through the Bridge Project.
- [09:20]
D
So every time we have these topics, I like to say this is not Meet the Press, we're not a political podcast. But all of these things are going to be interesting to watch and see what happens. But all of these issues will probably change in the debate. And the other thing I look at when I see this is this is for the budget that starts October 1st of this year and that is right before an election. So the thing that I think that's really going to be interesting to watch here is who fights for what on this. So you look at, for instance, a 50% cut in the EPA, that's going to be a battle and every bit of that battle is going to be in a talking point for the election. So it's going to be interesting to see who fights for what and what, how these things change to see really where this is going to wind up. So that's what I'm more interested in than the actual numbers. But if people are fighting for USDA and FSIS to get increases, if they're fighting for that EPA increase or fighting to hold that, I think that's where you're going to see where this ultimately comes out. And there's a lot of issues regarding this, particularly with some of the Maha stuff and who it appeals to. So that I think is the important thing to watch, see what people really push for and what they're willing to negotiate away. And you'll see where this is probably going to wind up.
- [10:29]
A
Well, I think that we've seen evidence of people seeing the disconnect. Well, I guess I want to start with, in a way, it's a statement of values. When it first comes out, it's like, okay, this is what we think we want to do, right? This is where we are placing our value, the 50% cut at EPA and the idea that we don't care about chemicals in our environment, but we do in our food. I don't know, like those two, that's not a separate thing. Like that's very much a through line. Like if we're concerned about chemicals in our bodies and in the, we should be concerned about it in the environment as well. So that's, that's kind of a disconnect for me. And also the The UPF stuff, you know, yet to be defined. The big initiative with maha and you know, what, what, what is it? Nobody can say. And, and even Kyle Diamante said in a recent interview for Agency IQ, POLITICO's Agency IQ, that it, you know, that really is the first step right in a lot of the MAHA stuff is defining that and that goes with some of their front of labeling stuff as well. And regarding the grass initiatives, they did say there that Kyle said again that this is a priority for the administration and they expect to see that before the election as well. So anyway, it's very interesting, but lots of cuts. So I don't know, I don't know. There's still, like I said, there's some coherence that I have trouble with. Things seem to be at odds.
- [12:13]
B
Yeah.
- [12:14]
D
The one thing I would say for the coherence, I think first off, I think you're right about that. I think it does signal a lot of what the priorities are. I think it also signals some of the horse trading that may be available because there's the substance of this and there's also the politics of this. And again, not, not the focus of what we talk about here, but it is a reality that some of this stuff will get traded away. The one thing that jumps out is a 50% cut to EPA. If somebody wanted to, let's say, move that back to a 75% cut, that would be something that could be traded. So I will always look for those things. When you see some of those outrageous sized cuts or numbers, it may be something that's a trading point or a political point. Just something to always keep in mind.
- [12:54]
A
Like you say, we're not here to talk about politics, but we're certainly affected by it. Food safety is definitely affected by it, no question.
- [13:06]
C
Well, this is a story that we'll obviously continue to follow and see what actually passes for the budget.
- [13:11]
E
This is all preliminary, but interesting things came out of the proposed budget for sure.
- [13:19]
C
Shifting from regulatory budgets to food fraud. FDA also released new findings on adulteration in honey. So approximately 4% of honey samples that were tested in 2025 were found to be adulterated based on analysis using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This method allows for the detection of added sugars or other substances that may not be identifiable through traditional testing approaches. The honey samples included 54 domestic samples and 48 import samples. FDA also conducted this kind of honey sampling from 2021 to 2022 and also from 2022 to 2023. Now, in the 2023 results 3% of 107 samples were found to be adulterated and in the 2022 results, 10% of 144 samples were found to be violative. Now, although the majority of honey samples tested in 2025 were unadulterated, FDA says the findings highlight ongoing concern adulteration in the global honey supply and vulnerabilities in supply chain transparency and verification.
- [14:30]
D
I suppose the first thing is why is it 4%? But it's good to see it's down from 10%. And some of these are small sample numbers. So 3% 4% are roughly the same numbers. But this has been the case with imported honey for a while and it's all economically motivated. Just like you said Adrian, you never see higher grade honey selling for a lower grade price or being represented as lower grade. It's always adulterated honey to spread out the volume. So this has been occurring for a long time. I don't want to say 3% is a good number, but it's or 4% is a good number, but it's better than 10%. So I guess that's some progress.
- [15:05]
C
Okay, so in other news, the 9th Global Food Safety Training Survey, led by Campton BRI has identified persistent gaps in food safety training alongside opportunities to strengthen workforce development. So respondents from over 3,000 sites worldwide highlighted a strong reliance on manual systems for managing training records, inconsistencies in training quality, limited access to standardized materials, and challenges in keeping pace with emerging risks and regulatory expectations. At the same time, the survey pointed to opportunities for leveraging digital tools and more targeted training approaches to improve effectiveness. So regarding training records, more than half of respondents reported using paper based systems, while 27% reported using spreadsheets. Just over 21% have adopted learning management systems or other digital tools. The use of formal competency frameworks for each job role also remains inconsistent. Around 25% of respondents said that they don't use these types of frameworks or aren't sure if they have one in place. Respondents also expressed mixed views on the effectiveness of their training programs. Approximately 60% rated their programs as sufficient, while over 17% rated them as poor. For full time staff, perceived effectiveness of training was lower for temporary or seasonal workers, with more than 25% of respondents indicating room for improvement. And notably, nearly 40% of respondents said training has no impact on staff retention and 6% reported a negative impact. Only 75% of respondents believe training positively affects productivity and a little over 5% reported no positive ROI from training. The survey also identified several persistent challenges in food safety training including scheduling time for training, making training engaging, assessing training effectiveness, having resources and staff for training delivery and documentation, and delivering job specific training. So despite the identified gaps, nearly 95% of respondents said they understand what is required to build and sustain a strong food safety culture, suggesting a foundation for improvement if operational barriers are addressed.
- [17:27]
A
I've got some surprises on my. Some of this stuff really surprised me. I just wrote my notes. It's like, what, what question marks? But like 6% said that it had a negative impact on retention. Like, I don't know. And no positive ROI from training. I don't know, Bob. I said I was shocked. You said you weren't.
- [17:54]
D
So I think it's fair to be shocked if you compare this to what it ought to be. But I can tell you if we go back through some of the insights articles, the numbers that I saw in this was as far as 40, 50% of people using spreadsheets and paper. That's about what we saw when we asked about how people keep records, when a number about 60 was it 60% of the people thought their programs were sufficient. We see the same sort of numbers when we ask people things, questions like, do you have an effective food safety culture? Do you have an effective food safety program? These kind of questions. We see the same sort of things and we always see 10, 20, 30% depending upon the question of people saying no, we really don't, or we're working on that or we really should do better. We see the same kind of numbers. So to me, it wasn't that surprising. It may be surprising compared to what maybe it should be, but it's not surprising to what we hear.
- [18:42]
A
Mm. It does seem an important part of, you know, I don't know, effective food safety and culture. Right. Is training. So I don't know.
- [18:56]
D
The one thing I'll mention is, and we see a little bit of this trend here is I did not get a chance to go back and look at the original survey that Campton did. But also it'd be nice to see how this is organized from large companies to small companies. It wouldn't surprise me if you had a food manufacturer that has 25 employees, if they had paper and spreadsheets and, and maybe a smaller supply chain than let's say somebody with 10,000 employees and a little bit more sophistication or resources to do things. So I think you might see the, the change by the size and maybe even the type of food processing that they do. But those, those things would be good to see the differences as well.
- [19:35]
A
Yeah. And year over year, too. Is this, you know, is changing, Right?
- [19:39]
D
Yep.
- [19:39]
F
Yeah.
- [19:41]
C
Okay, so before we go today, we want to share just a couple of pieces of other news quickly with you. First, some research about intervention strategies for a high risk product category. So, a recent study evaluated the effectiveness of UV C light treatment for reducing pathogens on microgreens, which are considered vulnerable to microbial contamination. UV C treatment achieved measurable reduction in Salmonella enterica, Shiga toxin producing E. Coli and Listeria monocytogenes on sunflower and radish microgreens that were tested. Salmonella was identified as the most sensitive to UVC irradiation, while Listeria showed the greatest resistance. The researchers also observed better pathogen reduction with shorter distance and bidirectional application. However, the UVC treatment didn't provide a lasting antimicrobial effect. So during 14 days of refrigerated storage at 4 degrees Celsius after the UVC treatment, pathogen populations increased by 0.3 to 1.7 log CFU per gram. The researchers concluded that while UVC can be a useful mitigation strategy, it should be used in combination with other preventive measures, including the use of safe inputs and strict hygiene practices. And in one more piece of US Regulatory news, USDA recently announced the creation of the Office of Seafood. One of the primary roles of the new office will be coordinating across USDA departments to ensure that fisherfolk are integrated into USDA programs and working alongside the U.S. department of Commerce and other federal partners to revitalize the American seafood industry. Now, while the majority of the US Seafood supply is regulated by fda, USDA FSIS regulates catfish species, and the Agricultural Marketing Service oversees country of origin labeling for fish and shellfish.
- [21:38]
A
All right, well, thank you, Adrian. That concludes our news for today. But now, as promised at the very top of our episode, we're going to learn about chlorine dioxide, a powerful sanitation solution, from a recent discussion Adrian had with Patrick Schneider, Vice President of Operations and engineering at CDG, the chlorine dioxide company. Prior to joining CDG in 2022, Patrick spent 35 years holding various global roles in the oil and gas industry. Patrick holds a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from Penn State University. And let's listen in.
- [22:17]
E
Well, Patrick, great to have you on the podcast today. Thanks so much for joining us.
- [22:21]
F
It's nice to see you again, Adrienne.
- [22:23]
E
Yeah, you too. Now, talking about our topic today, you want to remind our listeners, what is chlorine dioxide? And why is this technology crucial for an all encompassing sanitation program?
- [22:37]
F
Yes, I appreciate that question. We get asked this quite often. Chlorine dioxide is a powerful, oxidizing biocide, virucide and fungicide. One thing to point out, all chlorine dioxide is not the same. There are products on the market currently that are marketing themselves as chlorine dioxide. But if you look at their SDS or their EPA label, you'll see zero chlorine dioxide present. That's big because there's additional steps that one needs to take in order to generate the chlorine dioxide. Chlorine dioxide is a gas first registered by the EPA in 1988 as a sterilant. Its uses are in food processing, fruit and vegetable harvesting, animal husbandry, milk production, water treatment, odor control, pet food processing. The list goes on and on. It's a technology that can be seen to be used as a food surety product where it can take everything from the farm to the processing plant, from the vegetable harvesting to the cannery, and so on. One of the general assumptions is chlorine dioxide is chlorine or chlorine bleach. That is a big mistake. Chlorine dioxide is not chlorine or chlorine bleach. The chemistries of the two compounds are completely different. Just to give you an instance, on a mole per mole basis, chlorine dioxide is 2.6 times more effective than chlorine in killing pathogens. And one of the biggest benefits of chlorine dioxide is unlike with other chlorinated solutions, there's no chlorinated organic compounds produced, such as THMs and HAAs.
- [24:40]
E
Well, thanks for that background, Pat. And you know, it was interesting what you mentioned about the label claims from some other manufacturers.
- [24:47]
C
And I guess that kind of leads to another question.
- [24:49]
E
So how is CDG chlorine dioxide offering different from others on the market?
- [24:55]
F
So CDG is offering. Our main product is CDG Solution 3000. We see that as the gold standard in chlorine dioxide solutions. We actually manufacture the chlorine dioxide in our plant here in beautiful downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania. And it's manufactured in a controlled environment. We're not relying upon the breaking down of chemicals in order to manufacture the chlorine dioxide. We, what we do is actually a combining reaction that takes place. It's two, it's two compounds coming together to create the chlorine dioxide molecule. CDG has 28 patents worldwide. The patented process by which we generate the chlorine dioxide in our CDG solution 3000 is manufacturing the gas and stabilizing in ultra pure water. One beauty of our product is there's no rinse required once it's applied. Our tagline is dilute, apply and forget. So basically ending up with total system cost reductions for the people performing sanitization. CDG Solution 3000 is recognized by NSF Non Food Compound Program D2 which is a sanitizer for all surfaces, not always requiring rinse, G5 for cooling and retort water treatments and G7 boiler and steam line products. While that's all those touch the food manufacturing and food processing industry. Additionally with the FDA we have the following FCNs food contact notification 1011 poultry processing 1052 red meat processing 1158 ready to eat meats and 1370 fruit wash. Not our competition in this area cannot say that we have no partial or adverse reactions like the other company's products. Remember we talked about these products out there that don't have any chlorine dioxide in their makeup. Well, that's because those products require a reaction to take place on site in order to generate the chlorine dioxide. And anyone that's worked with chlorine dioxide and has studied chlorine dioxide over time understands that that can be extremely hazardous. You may end up with unreactive products which can be hazardous from a disposal standpoint. So what we deliver to location is a set amount of chlorine dioxide in a set size container. We deliver everything from half gallon bottles up to 330 gallon IBCs. So just as an example, 155 gallon drum of CDG solution 3000 diluted to 50 milligrams per liter, which is the normal sanit, which is actually high on the sanitation side, will yield 3,300 gallons of applicable product. So significant cost savings to, to the end user. So you dilute based off the label recommendations and based off the application you're performing, you dilute the appropriate concentration on the CDG label itself. Another thing CDG does is we don't, you know, we, we don't want people taking our product and dumping it into buckets and taking those buckets and dumping it into water. We, we supply our products with distribution equipment inside already mounted. We've worked with the DOT to ensure that everything is, is in a solid state. And so therefore there's zero touching of our product. There's zero inhalation of the chlorine dioxide itself, which can be considered an irritant. So basically you take the cap off, you attach it to your dosing system, whether it be a pump or whether it be a dilution doser and allow for getting the solution to the proper concentration CDG solution 3000. It's certified organic halal kosher, NSF ANSI 60. And we also talked about NSF non food content tac D2, G5 and G7. Unlike our competition, we have proven efficacy. We've taken the time and the money to go out and put our money where our mouth is and proven the efficacy. We have 18 proven claims since the last time we talked Adrian, we've received seven additional approved claims back from the epa. Those are very, very important in the food security issue within the United States itself. Probably the biggest claim that we've had is the high path avian influenza. As everyone's aware, high path avian influenza is 100% fatal to poultry. There's massive culling programs that take place in the United States between fryers and egg layers. Just In March of 2026 there were 7.4 million birds culled in the state of Pennsylvania. The US Department of Agriculture specifically through Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services. APHIS offers significant financial assistance, indemnity payments and grants to producers for managing and responding to highly highly pathogenic avian influenza and utilizing solutions that are proven efficient, have a proven efficacy against high path avian influenza. And that is one. Another critical within the poultry realm is infectious bursal disease. It affects young chickens highly contagious with 100% mortality rate. Just as a summary for other things that we've been concentrating on porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome. We've received approval from the EPA for our testing on that minute virus of mice which has to do with testing of lab lab animals. M. Bovis tuberculosidal Campylobacter food poisoning. C. Bovis affects cattle from a reduced milk production and that's, that's what we have on the new label. Another thing that's happened since the last time we talked about is we have come out with a new product called CDG Gas. Now as I've mentioned earlier, like our CDG solution 3000, it's chlorine dioxide gas dissolved in water. Well, we have a way now, an approved way by the epa. Actually the only approved solution for used in the fumigation of food manufacturing barns silos. Because chlorine dioxide, it cannot be compressed into cylinders. It's just dangerous to have that high concentration of chlorine dioxide being compressed. So what we do is we stabilize it in water. And like I said, ours is the only ready to use chlorine dioxide solution approved by the EPA for fumigation and fogging. It's ideal for small and large scale projects. Great for post construction last step sanitation prior to commencing production or as a clean break from any identified issues the customer may be having. Gas will migrate into areas that liquid and foams cannot, compatible with metals, plastics and electronics. And once again, there's no post cleaning required. No, you go in, fumigate, release the gas afterwards and basically go back on production, test for whatever passenger may be there and go back onto production.
- [33:00]
E
So thank you for sharing those details, Pat. That is all very interesting and impressive when you talk about CDG chlorine dioxide and I guess that leads me to my next question. Are there any other technologies that perform
- [33:13]
C
the same as CDG chlorine dioxide?
- [33:15]
E
You talked about others needing a reaction, but are there any that perform the same as yours?
- [33:20]
F
Honestly, no. First of all, chlorine dioxide has been called the ideal biocide. Proven to be effective as a broad spectrum biocide. Highly effective in curling and preventing biofilm which we have not discussed previously. Highly effective and much less damaging in RO systems. Fast acting, effective at low dosages. More friendly to humans, animals and the environment. More friendly to equipment than other chlorine based solutions. Effective over a broad ph range. We don't need a buffer in order for our product to react on the surface. It's a true gas dissolved into water. So it's going to be able to migrate into the corners, into the ball bearings, whatever area needs to be addressed. And it does, does not degrade to form halogenated species. There's other biocides that are commonly used which are don't hold a torch to chlorine dioxide. One first foremost, chlorine bleach is a very prominent one, very, very available in the market. But once again, chlorine bleach is, breaks down into nasty products, nasty chlorinated species. Hydrogen peroxide, monochloramines, parasitic acid, ozone, bromine, iodine, glutaraldehydes, quats. These are all different chemistries that we can utilize with, with in order to kill various pathogens. A lot of these go ahead and smother or burn the pathogen. Chlorine dioxide being a gas that actually migrates through the cell wall and kills the pathogen from within. And the other thing, once again we talk about total system cost associated with food processing. You don't have to rinse chlorine dioxide, whereas with these other systems it requires a rinsing step.
- [35:17]
E
Yeah, so it sounds like CDG chlorine dioxide is, you know, not only better at, you know, what it does, but also a lot less, you know, not only maintenance but you know, you need
- [35:31]
C
to do a lot less to be
- [35:32]
E
able to use it effectively. So thanks Pat for sharing those details. Now kind of to wind things up, do you have any closing thoughts to share with us? And also will you be at the
- [35:42]
C
Food Safety Summit this year?
- [35:44]
F
Yeah, we definitely will be at the Food Safety Summit. Come by and visit us at booth 4:46 May 11th to 14th at the Donald E. Stevens Convention center in beautiful downtown Rosemont, Illinois. In summing things up just once again, solution 3000. It's a cost effective, powerful, broad spectrum oxidizing biocide, virucide and fungicide utilized in the whole food surety life. It is a very cost effective solution because of the ability to dilute, apply, not have to rinse uses through everything from as animal husbandry to food processing to pet food processing. Like I said, CDG solution. It's the ideal broad spectrum biocide. And once again with the tagline it's ease of use apply or dilute, apply and forget. No rinse required. But I do look forward to seeing everyone at booth 446 at the Food Safety Summit May 11th to the 14th.
- [36:53]
C
Wonderful.
- [36:54]
E
Thanks Pat. And thank you for coming on the podcast today to share more information about CDG solutions with our listeners. I know this information is going to be valuable to them. And thanks for reminding our listeners they can find you at Booth446 at the Food Safety Summit and we're looking forward to seeing everybody there. Come, come visit CDG at 4:46. So thanks again Pat. It's been great talking with you today.
- [37:18]
F
Thanks Adrian. Look forward to seeing you there.
- [37:21]
A
Thanks again to Patrick Schneider for joining us and CDG Environmental for sponsoring today's episode. And as always, there are links to all the articles that we've referenced in our show Notes if you don't already, we invite you to follow us on our channels LinkedIn X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Just search for Food Safety magazine. And to take a deeper dive into all the great content that we offer, Visit our website food-safety.com and now it's time for Adrian's interview with Sandro Tarkini, who serves as Global Head of Business Development at Cardano Foundation. He brings over a decade of experience in digital financial services, fintech, innovation and strategic partnerships across blockchain and traditional finance sectors. Prior to joining the foundation, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Saxo bank, and most recently Wieden. Most recently at the Foundation, Sandro worked with Grant Thornton, Switzerland to execute the first financial audit attestation on a blockchain. Okay, let's hear their discussion.
- [38:29]
E
So today we're doing a deep dive on a topic that you may not hear discussed much in food safety today, but that you'll probably start hearing about a lot more often, Blockchain and here with me is Sandro Tarkini of the Cardano foundation to help shed some light on blockchain and its growing use in food systems and food safety and quality. So welcome to the podcast, Sandro. It's nice to have you.
- [38:54]
B
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me.
- [38:56]
E
So first of all, can you tell our listeners a little more about the Cardano foundation and its work as a nonprofit?
- [39:03]
B
With pleasure, yes. The Cardano foundation is an independent and as you already mentioned, a not for profit foundation based in Switzerland. We are dedicated to advancing the Cardano blockchain ecosystem. Being not for profit allows us to have a long term view of and allows us to prioritize topics as operational resilience, education and adoption and longevity of Cardano. Of course, without the short term financial pressure. Maybe a couple of words about me and how I came to the Cardano Foundation. I came across Cardano and the Cardano foundation for the first time during my time as a consultant six, seven years ago and followed its development since two years ago. I decided to join because I believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology. Now, after the biggest blockchain hype is over the time, is, in my opinion, mature for solving real world problems within traditional industries such as the food industry. As an example, this is what drives me and my whole team every day.
- [40:15]
E
Great. Well, thanks for that background and thanks for telling our listeners a little bit more about what Cardano does. Now, for listeners who may be familiar with blockchain in finance, but not in food systems, how can blockchain be applied to improve things like food traceability and
- [40:32]
C
transparency across the supply chain?
- [40:35]
B
For this, it's important to understand what a blockchain is. A blockchain is first and foremost a transparency infrastructure. What does that mean and what can that bring to the food safety industry? Let's take the example of late 2025 when a toxin contamination in infant products was detected during routine testing in the Netherlands. This contamination went undetected across the whole global supply chain for 13 months, affecting 800 plus products in more than 60 countries. All this despite that the traceability infrastructure to catch such issues much earlier, exists today with public permissionless blockchains such as the Cardano blockchain. It wasn't just deployed. So let's be absolutely fair here. Would Blockchain have prevented the contamination from happening? Or would blockchain have detected the contamination itself? No, but what it would have enabled would have been faster flagging of the issue, faster sales suspensions and faster global recalls, dramatically improving the speed of response across the whole supply chain. So why is this possible? Let's dive just two seconds into the characteristics of a blockchain. What is a blockchain? It is first of all, tamper proofed shared ledger. So every authorized participants sees the same record and no one can alter their version without others knowing. This is one of the attributes of a blockchain. And then secondly, a blockchain is decentralized and independently verifiable. So in plain English, no single company or government controls the data, but regulators, customers, auditors can verify any record at any time. Therefore, with blockchain technology, transparency is guaranteed and speed of response can be much, much higher in any supply chain.
- [42:52]
E
Well, that's a really interesting example that you gave about the contamination in infant formula.
- [42:58]
C
And I guess that kind of leads into my next question.
- [43:00]
E
So you know, from a food safety perspective, what kinds of specific problems in traceability or supply chain visibility does blockchain help solve that traditional data systems might struggle with?
- [43:13]
B
As I mentioned before, a blockchain is an immutable transparency. And this immutable transparency leads to increased trust. Why does this matter? I mean, today we are living in a world where food fraud is 27 billion US dollar annual crime enterprise. These profits depend entirely on the invisibility of existing supply chains. So what does that lead to? That leads to trust in food systems is under pressure in many regions. If you look into the European Union's latest food trust report, then less than 50% of Europeans has still trust in food safety and in the food sector actors. Which is not surprising because the latest test in Germany, Austria and Switzerland showed that only 30% of the honey products that were tested were not altered. And this is not only for honey, but honey, olive oil, wine are among the most falsified products globally. So we need to recognize that traditional supply chains are siloed and mutable. But blockchain creates tamper proof, independently verifiable governance records and blockchain therefore could solve this issue. And there are a lot of proof points in the whole blockchain ecosystem or the whole blockchain industry. For us, for Cardano as an example, we have shown that it works in Georgia with wine from grape to glass. But also we have Cardano ecosystem entities who show the same thing with honey from hive to the table. So coming back to what I mentioned earlier, transparency leads to trust and we need to have this increase in trust in the food industry.
- [45:17]
E
And you know, when we're looking at blockchain, you know, it is a little bit of a newer technology. And you know, implementing new technology across supply chains can be complex. So what do you think are some of the biggest challenges that organizations face when they're looking to adopt blockchain for traceability?
- [45:36]
C
And how can they overcome them?
- [45:38]
B
Yeah, there are indeed challenges, but they are all surmountable. The first challenge is, of course, and that's the most logical one, technology you mentioned. Blockchain technology is not commonplace yet today. So whenever an enterprise, a company, decides to go into blockchain solutions, they will be faced with the question, who does it? So they will be forced or asked to go outside and get new subject matter experts on board or they need to upskill their existing workforce. But luckily, Cardano foundation has with the Cardano Academy and the Cardano Enterprise Enablement Program initiatives to support enterprises in this endeavor. Secondly, there is of course an operational challenge because, let's be honest, supply chains can be very, very complex and how to bring the whole supply chain on board when introducing a blockchain, that is definitely not easy. But what we see in Europe and also in other parts of the world, the regulatory requirements are tightening. So this can of course be the perfect leverage to introduce a blockchain solution. And there is this third aspect that needs to be accounted for, which is an internal cultural aspect, because using a blockchain, and I mentioned it, the blockchain is mainly a transparency architecture, leads very often to a paradigm shift within the company because the company data usually is in silos and not shared with the outside. Whenever you go with a blockchain, you start sharing data with the outside, with an outside audience. And this scares still today a lot of companies from doing. But any project can always be starting with defining what should be public versus private. And this is definitely a critical first step. As I mentioned, these challenges are surmountable and the benefits consistently outweigh the effort once it is implemented.
- [48:10]
E
Well, thanks, Sandro, for all that great information and I'm glad you mentioned some of the initiatives that the Cardano foundation offers. So we are going to dig into that a little bit later. But I want to go back to something that you point briefly mentioned a few minutes ago, and that's the Georgian Wine Traceability program that the Cardano foundation worked on with Georgia's National Wine Agency. So I'm really interested about this and I think our listeners will be too. Can you walk us through how blockchain is being used to authenticate wine from the vineyard to the shelf and what that means for both producers and buyers?
- [48:44]
B
Absolutely. Well, first of all, this project was actually very key for the Cardano foundation because it was the first time that we really could show that our technology works to bring the whole supply chain on chain and make it transparent and immutable. But let's take a step back. Let's understand what wine actually means to the Republic of Georgia. Well, Georgia is usually referred to as the birthplace of wine. So it's a national pride, it's a national heritage. But counterfeit Georgian wines were undermining market integrity and producers ability to prove authenticity badly. And just for general information, this is not only the case in Georgia. Industry estimates today suggest that 20% of all wines circulating globally are counterfeit or fraudulent.
- [49:45]
C
Wow.
- [49:46]
B
So it's not only Georgia which is facing this issue. So. But going back to Georgia, faced with this problem, Cardano foundation partnered with Georgia's national wine agency to put all certification processes along the whole wine making process on the blockchain. And by that creating an immutable, verifiable record from grape to glass. What does that mean for the buyers? The buyers can now, today at their point of purchase, just take the mobile phone, scan the QR code on the, on the bottle, and they get the information about the winery, when the wine was harvested, and with a certificate coming directly from the national wine agency confirming the quality of the wine. So for us, this was super interesting and super success, a super successful pilot. And what it also showed for the participating wineries that after three years of the project, they saw an increased sale of their wines, expansion to new markets and elevated brand awareness. So for us, this is a really good blueprint of how traceability can be brought on chain. And this is important. It doesn't only work for wine, but it also works for other commodities such as honey oil and so on. And we have seen honey traceability projects in Africa, in Latin America. So they prove the approach works across geographies and different commodities, which is important because as food fraud is not sector specific and special foods all face the same authenticity problem. And there's one aspect that we should not forget, especially today. I mean, today we have not the blockchain hype anymore, we have the AI hype. But what does that mean? I mean, AI generated content makes product claims easier to fabricate. So cryptographically verified prominence data becomes even more critical to maintain market integrity across all food categories.
- [52:19]
C
Wow.
- [52:20]
E
Well, that was some really interesting information about the Georgian wine traceability program. And I also like what you said about how, you know, because of the improvements in traceability, the, the market for Georgian wine has actually expanded and grown. And you know, I mean, that's just a really good example of how, you know, blockchain here can actually help, you know, help a product category or a market expand. And then I also liked what you said about, you know, with this pilot and other pilots and other other initiatives with things like honey or oil, you know, these foods and beverages that are very vulnerable to food fraud. And we see, you know, we see that a lot. But then you have something like blockchain application in this area and improvements to traceability and then that allows, you know, the risk of adulteration or fraud to, you know, be, be lessened. So really interesting. Thanks for sharing all that, those details with our listeners. Now I'm wondering what are some like lessons and best practices for, you know, setting up the right ecosystem of partners and resources. In Switzerland specifically, which is where the Cardano foundation is based, it is mainly
- [53:42]
B
regulatory clarity and innovation friendliness. This is key, especially when it comes to Switzerland. I can give you an example from the blockchain industry because that's where I'm home. So Switzerland introduced the so called DLT act in 2021, which gave explicit legal status to digital assets much earlier than most other countries. But regulatory clarity began even earlier when the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority provided clear token classification in 2018. This regulatory clarity, together with the fact that the Ethereum Foundation's decision to select Switzerland as their home base already in 2014, led to the establishment of the whole blockchain ecosystem, which today spans over 1,700 enterprises. In addition, unlike many jurisdictions where crypto firms struggle to access banking, Switzerland saw the first fully licensed crypto banks emerged very early on and the ecosystem had immediate access to talent from top universities such as ETH or for instance crypto savvy lawyers, tax advisors and auditors. So it is exactly this genuinely innovative, friendly mindset. The trusted institutions, banking expertise and legal sophistication which Switzerland, which is the reason why Switzerland has ranked as the top most innovative country for over a decade now. So it's all this mixed together and this is what is used to really build up a strong ecosystem.
- [55:28]
A
Cool.
- [55:29]
E
Now I want to go back to something else you mentioned, which was some of the things that the Cardano foundation offers to help companies adopt blockchain for their enterprises. And the Cardano foundation, for example, offers free courses through the Cardano Academy, including the Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate program. So how can these educational resources help professionals in the food industry better understand and evaluate blockchain solutions?
- [56:02]
B
As you mentioned, education is close to the heart of the Cardano foundation and one of the main focus points that we have with the Cardano Academy. We offer free, neutral and self paced learning allowing to lower the barrier to entry for any professional, regardless of technical background. And I think this is important. We see the Academy today being used by Fortune 500 companies to educate their employees, but also universities using the content for their curriculum. But we also have government agencies that use it to educate their population. And since recently we also have major sports organizations using the content to educate athletes. But we don't stay there. Beyond the Academy, the Cardano foundation offers for enterprises specifically dedicated masterclasses. And we recently launched a program called Enterprise Enablement Program. Interestingly, this more targeted path was first used by an international NGO with which we are now setting up together with some Cardano ecosystem partners, a trace label and trade solution for. And that is not 100% decided yet. Either Honey from Central America or Amon Seeds from Guatemala. And the second participant in this Enterprise Enablement program is a global architectural technology company which is interested in evaluating additional use cases where Cardano could improve their business processes. But it's important to keep in mind the goal of the Academy isn't to turn food safety leaders into blockchain developers, but it is there to give them enough fluency to evaluate solutions in a critical way.
- [58:08]
E
Well, that's interesting and I think it sounds certainly like those resources that the Cardano foundation offers are something that our audience is going to want to, to look into. So another question that I have for you is, you know, kind of a zooming out, bird's eye view. What are some trends and challenges that you see that are facing blockchain in the year ahead?
- [58:29]
B
Oh, the momentum. The momentum is definitely there. And the momentum is based on regulatory changes, especially in the eu the momentum is even structural. We see the requirements for a digital product passport coming up. But we also see new regulatory demands in the food sector. There is EU legislation established, a regulatory framework in structured, verifiable and auditable evidence that is needed when it comes to, as an example, to prove that there was no deforestation when this project or this product was grown or harvested. So these are all natural use cases for blockchains. But Also in the U.S. i mean, in the U.S. regulatory clarity is improving. So creating new demand for compliant blockchain infrastructure also on this side of the Atlantic. But and I think we mentioned it before, there are some challenges that remain. First of all, I think of interoperability because as more and more organizations adopt digital traceability tools, blockchain solutions will need to integrate with existing enterprise systems such as ERP platforms and regulatory reporting tools that every company has. But they are today not integrated with blockchains yet. And then of course it's the education and workforce readiness that remains a challenge because we mentioned it before, many industries are still in the early stages of understanding blockchain, so trading and education still needs to play a key role in enabling adoption. But this is, at the end of the day, the reason why Cardano foundation is here and we are happy to help.
- [60:30]
E
And Sandra, where can people learn more about the Cardano foundation and its blockchain resources?
- [60:37]
B
Oh, for listeners looking for valuable insights, resources and partnerships, please do not hesitate to visit either the website of Business Location Switzerland or of course the Cardano foundation website. And please do not hesitate to contact us in case of questions because we would like to take up this topic together with you and see what we could do for your company.
- [61:01]
C
Great.
- [61:01]
E
Thank you so much, Sandro. And thank you for joining us in the podcast today to talk about this very interesting topic, you know, of blockchain applications for food safety and quality. I think some of the examples you gave are really illuminating for our listeners about how blockchain could help improve the transparency and visibility of their supply chains. And certainly in an age where food fraud is unfortunately rampant, especially in certain sectors of the food industry, we see the need for solutions, solutions like that. So thank you so much for enlightening our listeners on how blockchain can help them.
- [61:39]
B
Thank you very much for having me and your interest in blockchain. Thank you. Have a great day.
- [61:44]
A
Thanks again to Sandro Tarkini for joining us on the podcast today. And of course thanks to all of you for listening. A very special thanks to our presenting sponsor, CDG Environmental. To learn more about their chlorine dioxide solutions, visit CDG environmental.com now. You know we love hearing from you, so never hesitate. Send us questions or suggestions to podcastood-safety.com or post a note on LinkedIn, X, Facebook or Instagram. We always love getting your feedback and to make sure that new and bonus episodes magically appear in your podcast player, all you have to do is click that Follow or Subscribe button in the player of your choice and presto Bingo episodes appear. And while you're there, throw some stars. Our way by rating the podcast, especially if you liked it. It only takes a moment, and it's good for everyone. And I've noticed that a few of you have been doing that. So those numbers are up there. So thank you. Okay, and that's it for us today. Our next regular episode will post on May 12 while we're at the Food Safety Summit. In the meantime, take good care of yourselves and those around you, and we'll talk to you then.