Teton Waters Ranch, a 100% grass-fed and finished beef company, is elevating its already responsible sourcing practices to implement end-to-end traceability using Wholechain, a winner of the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Food Traceability Challenge. The implementation entails tracing beef products all the way through the supply chain starting at the birth farm and recording data points along the way on the Algorand zero-carbon blockchain. The blockchain’s immutable chain of custody enables Teton Waters Ranch to see its supply chain activities at a granular level not yet seen in another U.S. grass-fed beef supply chain.

Traceability in the beef industry brings important environmental, business and food safety implications that should concern the industry as a whole. With traceability comes improved supply chain visibility, enabling companies like Teton Waters Ranch to select its sources with more scrutiny for environmental responsibility.

“Teton Waters Ranch is leading the way for the beef industry in verifying responsible practices from the source using a foundation of traceability. As a technology provider, Wholechain is proud to work with companies at the cutting edge of responsible land management and animal welfare. Traceability data that starts at the birth farm will help Teton Waters Ranch to ensure they continue to honor their promise to consumers of environmental responsibility and 100% grass-fed and finished beef,” said Jayson Berryhill, Co-Founder of Wholechain.

“Consumers need and deserve to have confidence that the brands they trust to feed their families are being transparent about how and where their products are sourced,” said Jeff Tripician, CEO of Teton Waters Ranch. “In addition to Wholechain traceability on 100% grass-fed and finished beef, we have worked closely with renowned animal care expert Dr. Temple Grandin and other professors at Colorado State University on grassland management to ensure the raising protocols for our beef is of the highest caliber.”

Consumers and partners of Teton Waters Ranch can learn about the product journey now by visiting an interactive link or scanning a QR code. The Teton Waters Ranch product journey story was created using Wholechain's consumer transparency tool and QR codes will soon be available on packaging in stores across the United States.

Traceability at the lot-level — a priority for Teton Waters Ranch — can also help prevent unanticipated costs of recalls that arise with supply chain disruptions. For example in 2021, U.S. retailer Topco Associates leveraged Wholechain data to reroute a truck destined for a warehouse facing a COVID-19 outbreak. The retailer also used its supply chain data to identify lots of mislabeled products posing a food safety risk, to prevent them from reaching shelves and triggering a recall. The interventions prevented unnecessary costs, waste, and supply shortages for the major U.S. retailer.

Beef and pork suppliers and manufacturers are familiar with the high costs of supply disruptions: in 2021 the pork industry faced the potential of $5 billion in losses, and cattle ranchers faced unanticipated feed costs to keep animals on lots when processing plants shut down due to a rise in COVID-19 infections.

Teton Waters Ranch’s move to implement traceability is both a business and environmental imperative, positioning the company as a positive example for other U.S. grass-fed beef companies. Teton Waters Ranch products, sourced from ranches across the U.S. and Australia, are distributed to Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Sprouts and other leading grocers across the country. The above-mentioned benefits of traceability data provide added food safety and supply assurances for the big grocers and consumers, making Teton Waters Ranch an attractive supplier of 100% grass-fed and finished beef.

Sources: Teton Waters Ranch, Wholechain