Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-owned supermarket chain Hema launched a food-tracking feature that provides customers farm-to-store information about a product at 17 of its locations in Shanghai, according to an Aug. 7 post on the Chinese e-commerce giant's news site, Alizila.

Product information such as a distributor's business license, food safety certificates and delivery dates, as well as storage temperatures, can be accessed via the Hema mobile application.

Customers in-store can scan an item's Quick Response code using the app to see its sourcing data, while shoppers at home can access the information through a product's page on the app.

More than 1,700 items have been entered in the system since it was implemented in January, the company said.

Hema plans to roll out the feature to all of its 64 locations in China by the year-end.