The Evolution to Internet of Things (loT) and Predictive Analytics to Enhance Food Safety & Reduce Loss

FOR THE TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED FOOD STORAGE

In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40% of the food supply. Equipment malfunction and human error in storage and retail stages are significant contributors to food loss.

New advancements in temperature monitoring with Internet of Things technology ( IoT) and predictive analytics are empowering the industry to improve safety and compliance while generating significant cost savings. These advancements enable food service professionals to improve business practices based on proactive alerts and actionable data.

EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY IN REFRIGERATYION TEMPERATURE MONITORING

Temperature Measurement, Recording and Data Storage

Current: Manual entry utilizing staff & management time costs approximately $600 - $800 per year, per refrigerator or freezer. Managers continue to report challenges with maintaining staff compliance and accuracy. Archiving, storage and retrieval of data is cumbersome, time consuming and costly. The hard copy of temperature logs take up storage space, and can be inadvertently damaged or misplaced.

New Technology: Sensors provide accurate and granular data which is stored in the cloud for compliant, reliable and cost-effective retrieval, analysis and reporting providing significant cost savings.

Current: The current practice of manually monitoring refrigeration temperatures notify staff only after a temperature excursion has occurred and inventory may have already been compromised. And, manual data collection only occurs when staff is present but what if a unit fails when no one is present?

New Technology: Provides real-time measurements and alerts sent to a smartphone to notify of issues with temperature and/or door open duration is past the desired limit and before contents of a refrigerator or freezer are damaged. Detailed digital-data logging provides verifiable historic data and flexible and rapid retrieval of all temperature readings and excursions. This data is collected continually and provides the staff with the knowledge that inventory is at safe temperatures.

Predictive Analytics for Advance Notice of Equipment Failure

Current: Little information is provided on the efficiency of the of refrigerator or freezer units and no advance notice is provided of breakdowns.

If you’re monitoring the temperature of your refrigerators and freezers, there is a wealth of information you could benefit from. For example, measurements, when visualized and analyzed in graph form reveal if your refrigerator or freezer is running too cold, too warm or is in need of service. OneEvent refers to this analysis as the Thermo Heartbeat^TM. Measuring and managing using the Thermo Heartbeat analysis can provide insightful information which can help you reduce energy costs and prevent expensive breakdowns in advance. Door open and close sensors and reporting using Thermo Heartbeat analysis provide valuable insights into behaviors that may be generating safety issues and wasting energy.

New Technology: Monitoring the Thermo Heartbeat can provide advance notice of a refrigerator or freezer’s relative health and propensity for failure. These benefits have proven effective at preventing potentially disastrous excursions and expensive off-hours or urgent repair service.

By analyzing the Thermo Heartbeat of any refrigeration or freezer unit, it is possible to classify its operation based upon one of the following 5 standards:

1. Unit is running within normal parameters and operating effectively
2. Unit is running colder than necessary
3. Unit is running warmer that necessary
4. Unit should be observed for potential service or adjustment
5. Unit requires immediate service

Thermo Heartbeat allows for analysis of the cooling units resulting in staff being able to make adjustments to temperature settings to the unit to ensure that temperatures are maintained in the ideal mid-temperature range instead of on the high or low end of “normal” temperatures.

The following report is courtesy of OneEvent Technologies^®. OneEvent Technologies delivers patented technology that produces life and property saving data through predictive-analytics and is shifting the industry paradigm from reaction to prevention.