Steakhouse patrons can track their beef using blockchain

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A Brazilian steakhouse is giving its patrons a rare treat. Fogo de Chao, which has locations across the globe, is going to integrate the blockchain into its supply chain in order to track the beef that it serves. The meat can be traced from farm to table, giving customers a greater amount of confidence regarding what’s put on the table and giving the cattle ranching business a boost to enter the blockchain era.

With the integration of blockchain technology into the cattle industry, the ranchers will be able to get a glimpse of the health and behavior of their herd and restaurants can track the source of the meat. Consumers will also be able to view the history of the animal’s life using a “semi-public” network available through their smartphones.

To make it possible, Fogo de Chao has partnered with HerdX, an agriculture technology company based in Boerne, Texas. The new platform will provide better food safety and transparency and HerdX states, “We are launching first in Fogo de Chao’s three Dallas locations and then quickly scaling with them to all of their 52 locations.”

The company currently has locations throughout the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the Middle East.

The Chief Technical Officer for HerdX, Austin Adams, told a CBS affiliate in San Francisco, “Our main goal is to promote the legacy of the two percent of people that actually raise the animals that Americans eat. By doing that, we’re also able to create a safer supply chain,” adding, “We can see where the animal was born, we can see all the stages of the animal’s life on a semi-public network so the consumer can actually see that.” 

Once the platform goes live, the restaurant’s menus will offer QR codes that can be scanned by the patrons. Those codes will launch the HerdX website and will then show what the cattle was fed, where it comes from and when it had arrived at the local destination. Fogo de Chao won’t charge extra for the HerdX beef and the restaurant’s CEO, Barry McGowan, adds, “We’ve got one of the safest food supplies in the world, everybody’s been very conscientious about it, and what’s great is technology is just advancing the conversation. And now with blockchain, it’s going to accelerate it.”