At the end of this month Food Safe System will be showcasing it’s latest products at Restaurant Tech Live on the 26th & 27th September. Restaurant Tech Live is Europe’s largest exhibition dedicated to the emerging technology and services that are forming the future of the restaurant business.
It will be interesting to see how the food service industry is taking on digital transformation. There is still plenty of room for growth in terms of digital transformation for the foodservice industry, but it is primed to take the next step in incorporating more emerging technologies into its business processes. As of now, most of the digital transformations taking place are customer facing and focused on driving revenue. There’s been a flurry of these transformations taking place across the industry in the form of loyalty apps, online ordering, gamification, and proximity based marketing. Now that the Internet of Things is maturing, some businesses are beginning to realise how the technology will help them operate more efficiently and improve margins, especially when it comes to food safety compliance.
The food service industry stands to benefit greatly from the IoT. In 2019 the FSA aims to implement a digital approach to safety and quality of product for consumers. The legislation will be challenging for businesses in the space. For example, FSA will require companies to frequently monitor and record temperatures of food prep and storage areas. Today, most temperature checks are done by hand and can take up to an hour to complete, thus, contributing to higher labor costs. As a solution, IoT-based temperature monitoring is a powerful technology that can save businesses money and increase the accuracy of their compliance reporting.
Aside from the obvious regulation and legal repercussions of not adhering to FSA, another driver for food service companies to be more thorough in their food safety policy is brand protection. Each year in the UK there are over 500,000 reported cases of food poisoning, costing the NHS £350m annually.
A typical food poisoning out break will cost an establishment an estimated £60,000, turnover is likely to drop about 40%, and insurance costs will rise. This number doesn’t include any recovery costs or losses due to damaged brand reputation.
Most people are familiar with the Chipotle catastrophe of 2015 in the US. Chipotle suffered an e.coli outbreak which forced it to close 43 stores, and caused sales to tumble 13 percent the year following the PR nightmare. Furthermore, 7 percent of its former customer base said they would never return.
This is where the IoT can provide tremendous value. Temperature monitoring automation is one example of how the IoT can revolutionize the food service industry. The way this solution works is temperature sensors are placed in cold storage areas and food prep areas such as walk-in freezers and deli counters, and are programmed to send alerts if temperatures breach certain thresholds. For example, if a freezer temperature rises above the regulatory standard, an SMS or email alert will be sent to the manager or an associate to examine the issue. The sensors are constantly monitoring and recording temperature data so that the restaurant or store is always in compliance. The data is uploaded and stored in a cloud platform where management can see visualizations of the reporting history.
The benefits for a solution like this are numerous but the most prominent are:
- Reduced labor costs since managers and associates no longer have to spend time doing temperature checks.
- A reduction in maintenance costs, as managers can look at data and identify malfunctioning equipment that needs repair before it reaches a critical point which would cost more money to fix or replace.
- Improved food product quality.
- Peace of mind for operators knowing that the data collected is accurate and that their restaurant is always in compliance.
These kind of solutions are beginning to pop up around the industry, but the majority of businesses continue to use traditional methods of temperature monitoring. The companies that move on this kind of technology soon will be a step ahead in a hyper-competitive industry.
A real-world example of this is our sensor monitoring platform, Food Safe System. We have over two decades of experience working in the food service industry and developed Food Safe System to help improve HACCP compliance, reduce expenses, and make their operations as frictionless as possible. Food Safe System is a platform providing sensor monitoring, alerting, real-time data visualisations, and reporting. Check out our site to learn how food Safe System can transform your business. www.foodsafesystem.com
