Lumachain’s platform, which started as a journey in 2018 to build AI based solutions focused on making processing plants safer while improving yields and quality control, uses strategically placed cameras and proprietary computer-vision AI algorithms to detect and document key welfare indicators in real time, helping teams identify and address potential issues. AI automatically flags key welfare events — including stunning effectiveness, electric prod use, slips and falls, pen crowding, and potential willful and egregious acts of abuse — enabling rapid corrective action. In addition to 24/7 monitoring, the platform allows plants to define the indicators they track and set their own thresholds, aligning with plant-specific animal-care programs and industry standards, including those from the Meat Institute in the US and Red Tractor in the UK – flexibility Sustainable Beef has fully leveraged in tailoring its program.

The platform’s effectiveness was independently validated in a peer-reviewed study by researchers at Colorado State University, published in 2025 (Edwards-Callaway et al., 2025).

Since then, Lumachain has compared its platform against PAACO-trained human evaluators, and found near-perfect accuracy across critical welfare measures, including:

• Effective stunning: 99.5%
• Electric prod use: 99.5%
• Slips and falls: 99%
• Potential willful and egregious acts of abuse: 98%
• Pen crowding: 99.5% 

For Sustainable Beef, that accuracy enables continuous, objective welfare assurance and reinforces its leadership in animal care, supporting greater transparency and assuring customers and partners that welfare is monitored 100% of the time, far exceeding the manual, random-sampling methods traditionally used in the industry. For Lumachain, the partnership demonstrated how welfare assessments and operational improvements can be delivered together at scale. 

“Our platform represents a step-change in Animal Welfare monitoring, It gives all stakeholders including packers, ranchers, retailers, restaurants chains, and ultimately, consumers, certainty that animals are being treated with care and respect at all times,” said Jamila Gordon, CEO and founder of Lumachain and 2025 AI Innovator of the Year. “Working alongside Sustainable Beef, we're able to deliver continuous, independent verification of welfare outcomes with near-perfect accuracy.”

Because Lumachain measures welfare and operations through one AI system, it goes beyond just verifying care, and also identifies the handling and process issues that drive welfare risk and avoidable loss. Real-time, line-level visibility lets teams correct problems fast, improving flow, reducing waste and rework, and boosting throughput. Lumachain also links welfare monitoring with end-to-end traceability, connecting protocols, handling events, and production milestones into one verifiable record. That single source of truth strengthens compliance, reduces risk, and builds confidence across the beef supply chain. Lumachain is already operating in 10 beef packing plants, and nearly 50 food and beverage production facilities globally.

"Sustainable Beef was founded on a commitment to do right by the people who raise our cattle, the customers we serve, our employees, and most importantly, the animals entrusted to us. Providing the highest level of care at the end of an animal’s life is not optional; it’s a baseline expectation for everyone in our supply chain," said Paxton Sullivan, technical services manager at Sustainable Beef. "Our goal is to be leaders in the animal welfare space.

"When we do so, we not only improve the welfare of our animals, but also the quality of the beef we provide to our customers and the safety of our people. Lumachain’s technology strengthens that commitment by giving us real-time insight and helping us address issues the moment they arise."

Source: Lumachain