Merck KGaA and Hashgraph Group Pilot Cocoa Traceability on Hedera

Merck KGaA and The Hashgraph Group are piloting a cocoa traceability system that records physical authentication scans on Hedera. This is in response to the European Union's deforestation regulation, which requires large operators to collect geolocation data for all plots of land where commodities were produced by December 30, 2026.

The M-Trust technology from Merck KGaA embeds security markers in products or packaging and confirms their authenticity when scanned. The Hashgraph Group's TrackTrace platform writes this scan to Hedera with a timestamp, creating a digital history of the product.

Thomas Endress, Executive Director and Head of M-Trust at Merck, said that 'M-Trust verifies that the product being scanned is genuine, while TrackTrace records that authentication event as part of the product's digital history.'