The Hashgraph Group, Merck KGaA and PwC Germany are piloting a cocoa traceability system that links physical authentication scans with records written on the Hedera network. Merck’s M-Trust technology verifies that a scanned product is genuine, while The Hashgraph Group’s TrackTrace records the authentication event with a timestamp. The system does not itself create the farm-level geolocation data required by the European Union’s deforestation regulation. Large and medium operators must comply with Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 from Dec. 30, 2026, followed by micro and small operators on June 30, 2027. Cocoa is one of seven covered commodities. The rules require coordinates for all production plots, including perimeter polygons for plots above four hectares, and allow member states to impose fines with a minimum ceiling of 4% of an operator’s annual Union-wide turnover. No cocoa company is named in the announcement, which provides no tonnage, farm count, cost or post-pilot timetable. The announcement is the third about the passport platform since February without a named customer and the second involving Merck KGaA. The partners present the system as a broader provenance and compliance architecture, although food is excluded from the European Union’s Digital Product Passport framework under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.