Tag Archives: IoT

Predictive Analytics for Proactive Food Safety

By Emily Newton
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Many of the most popular predictive analytics use cases revolve around risk assessments and optimization. While businesses largely use them to drive efficiency and financial gains, the same tech can help make the food and beverage industry safer.

Predictive analytics could benefit virtually any industry that applies it. While that means monetary improvements in most sectors, this technology could impact people’s health and well-being in others. Applying predictive analytics in food safety in one such use case.

The Importance of Proactive Food Safety

Foodborne illnesses affect 48 million people each year in the U.S. alone. These diseases are easily treatable in many instances, but as hospitals become more crowded and the population grows, more could result in worse outcomes. Already, 128,000 of these cases hospitalize their victims and 3,000 end in death.

These outbreaks may become a more prominent threat over time, too. Climate change can make certain foodborne pathogens more common and affect food’s nutritional value. The global population is also growing, so available resources must spread further to cover everyone. That could result in more people being unable to access the care they need if they contract a foodborne disease.

Given these concerns, food safety must be proactive. Organizations need to stop outbreaks before they occur to reduce the burden on the health care system and ensure a healthier world. Predictive analytics can support that goal by optimizing several aspects of food safety.

Emily Newton,

Preventing On-Farm Contamination

Food safety starts with food’s farm origins. Some diseases can spread through pest contamination, and predictive analytics may provide more reliable proactive anti-pest measures than conventional alternatives.

Pest outbreak modeling begins by collecting data on weather patterns, past outbreaks, and known interactions between certain pests and other chemicals or plants. Machine learning models can then predict when rising pest populations are likely and what could stop them. Farmers can then respond as necessary, whether that means spraying the optimal amount of pesticide or companion planting to repel animals before they arrive.

Early experimental models under this umbrella have accurately predicted outbreaks up to seven years in the future — more than enough time for farms to adapt. Even if these warnings spur little more than increased attention to contamination risks, they could significantly impact food safety.

Protecting Food Products in Transit

Predictive analytics can guard crops or animal products in transit once they leave the farm. Unlike pest prevention, this application is less concerned with long-term trends, instead centering around real-time data.

Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can track metrics like shipment temperatures and humidity in real time. With this data, predictive models can identify when current conditions may lead to food safety concerns, such as temperatures rising above safe levels. Once they identify these trends, they alert drivers and other stakeholders to take action before spoilage occurs.

Some available solutions today can monitor core temperatures up to 1 meter away, while others can detect bacteria and gas associated with spoilage. Whatever the specifics, real-time data and machine learning enable fast responses to prevent contamination or stop spoiled products from reaching consumers if prevention is impossible.

Refining Manufacturing Processes

Predictive analytics can also promote proactive food safety in the manufacturing stage. Many manufacturers today are already investing in AI to optimize their production workflows, and the same technology can yield safety improvements.

Take the production of dry pet food — which accounts for 60% of all pet food sold today — for example. These products are prone to cross-contamination from additives or surface contact during extrusion, but these hazards are difficult to identify in a large facility. Predictive analytics can analyze digital twins of these facilities to pinpoint where this kind of contamination is most likely, informing workflow changes to remove or mitigate the risk.

Just as predictive analytics can highlight production bottlenecks, it can alert manufacturers to processes prone to bacterial infection or other health hazards. Advanced models can even suggest alternative workflows to make it easier to ensure the safest possible production process.

Pinpointing Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

Similarly, food and beverage companies can use predictive analytics to identify hazards in their supply chains. Third-party health and safety risks are hard to pinpoint manually, but AI can monitor real-time conditions and analyze past trends to predict vulnerabilities.

Businesses can apply predictive analytics to food supply chains in a few ways. One effective option is to analyze past health department reports to identify suppliers with a history of health and safety violations. Some solutions today can even highlight common themes between reports to reveal what kinds of hazards a company struggles with.

Other supply chain analytics engines can analyze real-time data to predict potential outbreaks in a region’s food supply or growing cross-contamination threats in an area. Food companies can then adjust their supply strategy to avoid sourcing from these problem areas and prevent outbreaks.

Learning From Past Outbreaks

Many supply chains have also embraced predictive analytics for scenario modeling. Applying this practice to food safety can help experts learn where past outbreaks came from to inform preventive measures in the future.

With enough data on past foodborne disease outbreaks, machine learning models could identify trends in their early warning signs. Alternatively, they could highlight how some logistics or manufacturing practices contributed to the disease’s spread. Predictive models can then apply these insights to real-time farm, production facility and health report data to predict incoming cases.

Food processors already use hyperspectral sensors that could help detect early warning signs of undesired microbes, like the release of some gasses. Feeding this data to predictive models alongside information on how past foodborne illnesses emerged and evolved could let them predict new diseases before they affect anyone. Global health agencies and food and beverage companies could enact much more effective mitigation measures as a result.

Predictive Analytics Takes Food Safety Further

Many of the most popular predictive analytics use cases revolve around risk assessments and optimization. While businesses largely use these applications to drive efficiency and financial gains, the same technology can help make the food and beverage industry safer. That will become increasingly crucial as the population grows and climate change worsens the threat of foodborne illnesses.

The use of predictive analytics in proactive food safety is still in its infancy, but early signs are promising. As this technology evolves and more brands capitalize on it, it could make the world a safer, healthier place.

Ainsley Lawrence

Implementing Traceability Systems in Restaurants

By Ainsley Lawrence
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Ainsley Lawrence

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in six Americans fall ill after consuming contaminated food or beverages, resulting in approximately 3,000 fatalities from foodborne illnesses per year. This highlights the critical need for restaurant traceability systems to ensure food safety and maintain quality standards. Without proper transparency, it becomes difficult to identify the source of contamination and take necessary actions to prevent the spread of foodborne illness.

The Benefits of Traceability Systems

The primary reason restaurants implement traceability systems is to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses. Traceability enables swift identification and removal of contaminated products from the supply chain.

Through detailed tracking of food production processes, including sourcing, processing, and distribution, traceability allows for targeted recalls, preventing the spread of harmful pathogens and ensuring consumer protection. Additionally, this system facilitates accountability among food producers, encourages adherence to stringent safety standards, and fosters trust and confidence in the food industry.

By tracking the origin of every ingredient and monitoring its handling and storage conditions, restaurants can ensure that all their products meet set quality criteria. This can include freshness, nutritional value, and sensory characteristics.

Effective Internal Communication

Traceability systems also allow for more effective communication within a restaurant’s internal organization. Using digital communication tools such as electronic logging devices (ELDS) and connected cameras, employees and managers can coordinate tasks efficiently and oversee global teams. These tools also offer real-time footage of food production processes, serving as visual records for audits. Efficient communication ensures all employees are adequately trained in technical processes, reducing the risk of errors, and boosting confidence in the system. Consequently, the establishment is better equipped to provide exceptional customer service, as they can pinpoint where ingredients or foods are in the distribution and production process.

Promoting Transparency

With the rise of food allergies and dietary restrictions, people want to know what ingredients are in their food and where they come from. Traceability enables precise identification of allergens by tracing the journey of ingredients from their source to the final product, allowing for accurate labeling and risk assessment.

For instance, a bakery can use traceability to track the origin of nuts used in its products, ensuring thorough allergen labeling and preventing cross-contamination for customers with nut allergies. This attention to detail helps to build trust and transparency with customers, who can then make informed decisions about what they consume.

These benefits make traceability systems an essential tool for restaurants looking to maintain food safety and quality standards while meeting consumer demands for accountability in the food industry.

Challenges in Implementing Traceability Systems

While applying traceability systems can significantly benefit restaurants, there are some hurdles that the food industry faces in maintaining them. This is why food industries need to implement food management systems to overcome challenges such as:

  • Cost: Implementing traceability systems can be costly, especially for small businesses. Audits, preparations, and maintenance require financial resources that may not always be readily available.
  • Keeping up with standards: The food industry must comply with various standards and regulations, which can be challenging for restaurants. Some standard guidelines include the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which have strict requirements for record-keeping, documentation, and reporting.
  • Resistance to change: Many restaurants still rely on traditional manual processes for tracking and record-keeping, making it difficult to transition to automated systems. This may be due to a lack of awareness or reluctance to change ingrained practices that have existed for a long time.
  • Technical challenges: Some individuals may be intimidated by new technology, making implementation and training complex. Lack of technical support can cause confusion in understanding new systems, and resistance to digital tools.

Despite these obstacles, the benefits of traceability systems make it essential for foodservice businesses to address these challenges and ensure they meet current standards and regulatory requirements. Following are some of the key technologies to investigate as you work to a more effective traceability system.

Tools To Enhance Traceability

Smart Labeling Solutions. Smart labeling systems use data matrix codes or RFID technology to monitor products throughout the supply chain. The codes can be scanned at various checkpoints, providing real-time data on the product’s location and condition. This improves data collection, reduces human error, and enhances security by ensuring only authorized personnel handle the products.

Smart labels also enable restaurants to provide customers with detailed information about their food, such as allergens and nutritional content, promoting transparency and trust. Product tracing can also lessen restaurant product recall costs, as the affected products can be quickly identified and contained.

IoT Asset Tracking. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology can aid in safe distribution, visibility, and reliability in restaurants. Through vendor compliance monitoring, damage detection, theft reduction, and spoilage detection, IoT can enhance data collection and help prevent food safety issues. This technology also enables real-time monitoring of products’ temperature and conditions during transportation, reducing the risk of spoilage or contamination. Moreover, close monitoring of these conditions makes it easier to identify and address any guidelines or compliance violations.

With advanced technology, effective processes, and a focus on disclosing accurate information, restaurants can implement more effective traceability systems to meet consumer demands and encourage confidence in the food industry.

Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine

5 Ways to Harness IoT for Next-Gen Cold Storage Monitoring

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Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine

Inefficiencies and lack of oversight in cold storage monitoring of food can lead to product spoilage, high repair costs, and contamination concerns. The solution to many of these issues is to gain more visibility and control over these processes, and this is precisely what the Internet of Things (IoT) provides. Following are five ways food businesses can use IoT technology to improve their cold storage monitoring.

1. Accelerate Emergency Response

One of the best ways to use the IoT in the cold chain is to monitor refrigerated shipments in real time. IoT sensors can track a product’s condition, location, and temperature as it travels and alert relevant stakeholders when any of these factors deviate from expected or required levels. These notifications enable faster responses to mitigate unexpected disruptions.

Broken refrigeration units are an excellent example. IoT sensors can alert drivers and other supply chain partners when a shipment’s temperature has risen too much. Drivers can then adjust their route to temporarily store the items somewhere nearby while they address the issue, preventing spoilage in transit.

Immediate responses like this could help reduce the 30% to 40% of food that goes to waste in the U.S. Over time, data from this real-time monitoring may also reveal larger trends indicating the need to upgrade some equipment or reorganize supply chains.

2. Improve Long-Term Equipment Maintenance

Equipment maintenance is another ideal use case for IoT in cold storage monitoring. Refrigeration units in vehicles or warehouses benefit from real time alerts as well as long-term data analysis.

IoT sensors can analyze repeated repair issues to diagnose refrigeration equipment with larger underlying issues, informing more effective fixes. They can also alert organizations when it’s time to inspect or upgrade equipment. That is particularly important for refrigerated buildings built before 2010, which likely use the now-banned R22 and require replacement.

Predictive maintenance is another popular application under this umbrella. This practice uses IoT sensors to predict future repair needs based on past trends and current data. By forming repair schedules around these predictions, businesses prevent breakdowns while minimizing maintenance-related downtime.

Cold storage manufacturing

3. Enhance Inventory Visibility

Food and beverage companies can use IoT systems to improve their inventory visibility. Up to 40% of food loss occurs between production and store shelves, often because of inefficient storage practices. More transparency is the solution.

IoT tracking solutions provide real-time data on the locations of products within a warehouse. They can also alert workers when items are nearing their expiration dates. With these insights, it becomes easier for companies to organize inventories and shipping schedules to prevent spoilage and product loss.

Storage facilities can use IoT monitoring to track temperatures throughout the warehouse as well. This data reveals if any spots are experiencing greater fluctuations in temperature or tend to be warmer than other areas. Brands can then address their refrigeration and storage practices to ensure everything stays at ideal temperatures.

4. Streamline Shipment Routes

Businesses can use IoT to refine their in-transit operations. The same cold storage monitoring systems that track shipments can reveal larger logistics trends to spur supply chain optimization.

For example, refrigerated shipments are often delicate and/or have short life spans, making inefficient routes risky. Over time, IoT data will help by revealing where the most stops or slowdowns occur. Organizations can analyze this information to uncover new, more efficient or less disruption-prone routes for more timely deliveries.

These insights are particularly valuable for food and beverage companies with international supply chains. Cross-border routes with multiple charge offs will have more opportunities for optimization, making them ideal IoT use cases.

5. Minimize Energy Costs

IoT sensors in cold storage can also reduce power consumption. By responding to current data, smart devices provide more precise, adaptable controls over energy-consuming processes, letting them operate on as little energy as possible.

Smart HVAC systems are the most familiar example. IoT-connected AC units stop or trigger cooling systems in response to temperature fluctuations, preventing unnecessary energy expenditures. Consequently, consumer versions can save $50 a year in cooling costs and industrial-scale equipment could see even more significant savings.

IoT tracking solutions also reduce supply chain energy consumption through more efficient routing practices. Vehicles traveling for less time consume less fuel, leading to lower diesel costs and related emissions.

Refrigerated transportation and storage can be difficult to get right. Food and beverage companies must ensure this equipment is reliable, but doing so often involves high operational costs. IoT technologies can improve cold storage processes and uncover opportunities to enhance related workflows.

Implementing IoT technologies in cold storage monitoring will involve some initial disruption and upfront costs. However, the long-term savings can compensate for these upfront expenses. Businesses that take this challenge head-on today can secure a far more efficient future.

Guy Yehiav

Driving Restaurant Food Safety with IoT-Enabled Digitalization

By Guy Yehiav
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Guy Yehiav

Restaurant operators have a critical responsibility to safeguard the health of their customers. Mitigating foodborne illness must be top of mind today more than ever. The potential risks are too severe to overlook, especially with new FSMA 2026 regulations on the horizon.

Take Netflix’s critically acclaimed 2023 documentary Poisoned for example. It cast a light on the consequential impact that poor food safety can have on restaurant customers. More than 48 million Americans suffer from foodborne illness every year, but it’s not always just a minor stomachache or temporary irritable bowels. In some cases, we’re talking about a matter of life and death. Dr. Darin Detwiler, LP.D., a nationally recognized food regulatory leader featured in the Netflix documentary, learned this reality firsthand after the tragic passing of his 16-month-old son from an E. coli infection caused by contaminated ground beef at a Jack in the Box fast food restaurant in 1993. And his family is not alone — there are 3,000 U.S. deaths from foodborne disease annually, with 1 in 3 afflicting children.

There’s also a business continuity component to consider. While no monetary value can be placed on human life, restaurants must understand the financial and brand reputational risks associated with poor food safety. Jack in the Box suffered approximately $160 million in legal penalties and lost sales as a result of the E. coli outbreak — and that was in the early 1990s. That is equivalent to about $350 million today. For a more recent example, Chipotle’s 2016 E. coli outbreak caused 43 restaurants to close, eroded over 45% of the company’s stock value, and resulted in a $6 billion loss in market cap. It underscored the criticality for restaurants to execute on food safety and the financial consequences of failing to do so.

In 2024, safeguarding restaurant customers from foodborne illness will require a shift away from legacy approaches in favor of IoT-enabled digitalized food safety strategies. The integrated use of IoT Sensing-as-a-Service frameworks throughout restaurant facilities provides the operational efficiency, real-time visibility, and data-driven decision making essential to preserve customer health. These frameworks combine IoT sensing and monitoring functions with the power of AI-driven prescriptive analytics to automate fundamental food safety processes such as condition monitoring, task management, compliance reporting, and asset protection. These tools enable the average person to comply with regulation and keep the client safe.

Compounded at scale, they enable restaurant operators to foster a culture of food safety accountability at every level of the enterprise and align with the oncoming realities of FSMA 2026.

FSMA 2026: A New Era on the Horizon

The FSMA 2026 regulations have raised the stakes for restaurant operators to enhance their digital food traceability capabilities. The new rulings will require them to provide verifiable data records of Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) across key hand-off-points of the food chain where products are at risk of spoilage. For example, that could be seafood containers transferred from a distribution truck to a back-house freezer or leafy greens inside a salad bar right before the point of consumption.

Restaurant operators must be able to prove that FSMA 2026 products remained in optimal conditions during critical control points. They will also be required to present an electronic traceability plan that clearly describes their procedure for maintaining records for the foods they handle. In the case of a foodborne illness outbreak at the restaurant, the operator must be able to present traceability records to the FDA within 24 hours if requested.

Maintaining compliance at this granular level requires agile food chain technology. Operators who haven’t invested in digitalization yet should be prioritizing it now ahead of FSMA 2026. It’s impossible for an enterprise to manually record accurate FSMA data across 40 or 50 locations without automation. Manual data logs are often siloed, incomplete, and hindered by human error. Adopting IoT Sensing-as-a-Service frameworks will be critical to preparing for the uncertainty ahead.

Real Time Condition Monitoring

IoT Sensing-as-a-Service frameworks empower operators to collect, analyze, and act on inventory data for a stronger food safety posture. Placed inside a restaurant’s food storage assets, IoT sensing and monitoring devices allow employees to remotely monitor their environmental settings in real time to confirm HACCP compliance standards are maintained. The devices also monitor the performance of those storage assets, automating the detection and prediction of maintenance issues that could lead to an illness-causing event. 

The raw data collected from each individual IoT device flows through a prescriptive analytics platform with continuous telemetry feedback loops that identify potential risks and prescribe mitigation actions. Based on the data-driven insights, restaurants can take the proper steps to ensure their products remain safe to consume.

Leveraging Digital Checklists

Digital checklists are another key component of the IoT Sensing-as-a-Service framework, helping to simplify the complexities of task management within a hectic back-of-house restaurant environment. Serving as an operational execution platform, these checklists enable operators to gain unprecedented visibility into employee efficiency and food safety initiatives. Managing workflows for multiple locations is exceedingly easier, allowing operators to monitor enterprise-wide food safety as quality performance alongside location-specific metrics. And with access to the right prescriptive tasks at the right times, employees can proactively enhance the safety of high-risk menu items such as poultry, leafy greens, and eggs that require stringent temperature-sensitive storage conditions.

In the past, restaurants would respond to incidents after the fact while leveraging unreliable paper-based records to explain what had gone wrong. While this level of manual task management is near impossible to analyze at scale, digital checklists help realize the benefits of a proactive food safety strategy, generating visibility into compliance and operational procedures, regardless of scale, while unlocking insights that prevent foodborne incidents from arising in the first place.

Francine Shaw
FST Soapbox

Unlocking the Promise of IoT in Food Safety and Transparency

By Francine L. Shaw
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Francine Shaw

In today’s fast-paced world, ensuring food safety and efficiency is crucial for food businesses. Fortunately, technological advancements, including the Internet of Things (IoT), have revolutionized the way the food industry operates. By leveraging IoT, food businesses can drive efficiency, enhance food safety, mitigate risks and boost transparency throughout the supply chain. All food businesses should be embracing IoT innovations to optimize their operations, improve efficiency, maximize safety and drive key performance indicators (KPIs), including consumer satisfaction, loyalty and sales.

The benefits of using IoT in the food industry include:

  • Enhancing food safety. IoT enables real-time tracking and monitoring of food products throughout the supply chain. With the help of connected sensors and devices, businesses can monitor crucial variables including temperature and humidity to ensure optimal storage conditions. Both companies and consumers benefit from this heightened level of food safety and quality assurance.
  • Improving supply chain transparency. IoT enhances end-to-end visibility and traceability. By employing sensors and radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags, businesses can track the movement of food products all along the supply chain, from farm to fork. This transparency helps identify the origin of any issues or recalls, significantly reducing the impact on public health. Moreover, it enables quicker and more targeted responses to any potential food safety breaches, mitigating risks, preventing foodborne illness outbreaks and ensuring consumer trust in the food supply chain.
  • Optimizing shelf life for product inventory. IoT devices collect data on product conditions, such as temperature, humidity and light exposure. This information empowers businesses to optimize inventory management, implement dynamic pricing strategies and reduce waste (and associated costs) by ensuring products are sold or consumed before expiration. By minimizing food waste, companies contribute to sustainability efforts and consumers benefit from fresher and safer products.
  • Upgrading real-time monitoring and predictive analytics. IoT devices provide real-time data on critical factors, including equipment performance, energy consumption and production processes. Businesses can detect patterns and predict potential issues by leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms. By identifying risks in advance, companies can proactively address them, preventing downtime and improving overall operational efficiency.
  • Elevating the customer experience. IoT can also improve the customer experience. Smart shelves equipped with sensors, for example, can offer personalized recommendations, nutritional information and/or recipe suggestions based on customer preferences. Connected devices in restaurants or food delivery services can streamline the ordering process, improve order accuracy and provide real-time status updates, making the customer journey smoother and more convenient.

It’s clear that IoT offers significant benefits for food companies. Following are five important considerations as you investigate these innovative solutions:

  1. Assess your organization’s specific needs. Identify areas of your food business that can benefit from IoT technology. Consider cold chain management, quality control, inventory management and any other aspect of operations or supply chain that can be optimized. Define the specific goals you want to achieve through IoT implementation.
  2. Choose reliable technology. Select IoT devices and solutions that are reliable, scalable and aligned with your business requirements. Prioritize factors such as data security, interoperability, ease of integration and ongoing support. Ensure that the technology you choose meets industry standards and regulations. Work only with trusted tech vendors.
  3. Examine your data management and analytics processes. Develop a robust data management strategy to collect, store and analyze the vast amounts of data that will be generated by the IoT devices. Employ analytics tools to derive actionable insights from the data, and use these insights to make more informed decisions.
  4. Collaborate with the right partners. Explore partnerships with technology providers, industry associations and regulatory bodies to stay updated on emerging standards, best practices and compliance requirements related to IoT technologies in the food industry. Collaborating with experts and industry peers can accelerate your IoT implementation journey.
  5. Prioritize data security. Implement robust security measures to protect your IoT devices and the data they collect. This includes network security, encryption, authentication protocols and regular monitoring for potential vulnerabilities. Safeguarding data privacy and complying with regulations is vital in maintaining trust with customers and partners.

Avoiding IoT-driven technologies in the food industry is no longer an option. These devices have become necessary to drive efficiency, enhance food safety, meet regulatory requirements and consumers’ evolving expectations, and stay competitive. By leveraging IoT solutions, businesses can optimize their processes, improve transparency, reduce waste and provide exceptional customer experiences. However, successful implementation requires a strategic approach, careful planning, ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement. By prioritizing food safety and communication, and identifying areas of greatest need for improvement, the food industry can unlock the full potential of IoT technology and pave the way for a safer future.

 

 

Tom Woodbury

IoT Technology To Boost Safety, Compliance, and Efficiency: How to Get Started

By Tom Woodbury
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Tom Woodbury

Using Internet of Things (IoT)-based systems to automate temperature monitoring in refrigerators and freezers offers several benefits to restaurants. Following we look at how automated temperature monitoring works and how to get started with IoT.

How it Works: Automated Temperature Monitoring in Action

IoT-based systems use sensors to continuously monitor temperatures in refrigerators and freezers. These sensors are mounted inside the cold storage units in the warmest part of the unit, typically near the door or opening. The sensors collect temperature readings periodically and transmit the data to the cloud. As the data is recorded, the system can detect and report any anomalies.

If the conditions inside a refrigerator or freezer fall outside of predetermined thresholds, managers and staff can be notified (via text, email, or in-store apps) so they can take quick corrective actions outlined in their risk mitigation plans. In addition, the data that is recorded and stored can be analyzed to help identify trends that can be used to inform maintenance schedules and make operations more efficient. For example, the data may show how many years (on average) a refrigerator will last before it fails, so an organization can plan to buy replacement units before a failure occurs.

Benefits of Automated Temperature Monitoring

The positive impacts of automated temperature monitoring, enabled by IoT, are often realized in four key areas:

Food Safety. Maintaining a controlled environment in refrigerators, freezers, and other food storage areas reduces the risk of spoilage. By automating the monitoring process, organizations can keep a continuous watch on cold storage units and alert staff if temperatures rise above predetermined thresholds, allowing them to take immediate corrective action based on their risk mitigation processes. This is particularly beneficial in situations where a refrigerator door might be kept open too long, a freezer door is not entirely shut, or during a power outage.

Regulatory compliance. Regulatory agencies require reporting of food safety compliance. Typically, this is a human-driven process, with manual checks of thermometers and handwritten logs. IoT technologies that automatically monitor and record temperatures provide easy reporting of temperature levels over time. This streamlined process makes it much faster—and easier—to demonstrate compliance.

Efficiency. Automated temperature monitoring can make back-of-house restaurant processes more efficient by eliminating the manual “check and record” processes mentioned above. This frees up staff time to focus on other important tasks, such as serving customers.

Sustainability. By reducing food waste due to spoilage, automated temperature monitoring supports sustainability goals.

How to Get Started

With a wide range of IoT devices and systems available, selecting the right one can be overwhelming. How can you get started? First, identify your organization’s overall goals in incorporating the new technologies, and then review those high-level goals as you investigate options. Here are some criteria to consider:

Device selection: When selecting IoT devices, one size does not fit all. Different devices deliver varying degrees of functionality. Some devices support a single use case, while others have multiple sensors to enable diverse use cases for scalability. Another consideration is battery life. Seek devices that offer extended battery life by leveraging user-replaceable batteries designed for low temperature environments. Other features to look for include use of food-grade plastics and support for firmware updates over the air (FUOTA).

Wireless technology: To effectively penetrate dense refrigerator materials (typically metal), most food service operators are using the open standard, LoRaWAN due to its ability to penetrate walls and maximize battery life.

Data caching: In the event of an interruption in connectivity, you must know what the refrigerator or freezer temperatures were during the outage. Some devices and gateways can cache data and resend as soon as they reconnect, while others cannot. Temperature data caching is critical for applications related to food safety, so be sure to ask for this during the research and evaluation process.

Deployment capabilities: Deployments are complex, and a provider that can navigate deployments at scale is vital. It is important to look at each provider’s technology offerings, installation, and deployment capabilities.

There are many benefits to using IoT to deliver automated temperature monitoring, and these benefits extend beyond food safety to sustainability and improved efficiency. They key is to identify the right devices for your organization’s specific needs.

Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine

Five Technologies Impacting the Beverage Industry

By Emily Newton
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Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine

The beverage industry is undergoing a period of technological transformation. As consumer demand and supply chain pressures reveal the shortcomings of older systems and processes, beverage manufacturers are embracing new technologies at an unprecedented pace. While many of these trends are promising, some are more impactful than others. With that in mind, here are the five technologies making the biggest impact in the beverage industry.

Automation

While automation isn’t necessarily new, it is reaching new heights. Automation is becoming an essential part of the beverage sector as robotic systems become more accessible and versatile, and talent becomes harder to acquire.

The food and beverage industry currently has more than 4 million open positions and could add another 370,000 by 2031. With fewer young workers entering manufacturing, beverage facilities are turning to robotics to sustain productivity. The more automated a facility is, the more it can accomplish despite having fewer employees, offsetting the labor shortage.

Automation applies to more than just physical workflows, too. Robotic process automation is seeing increased adoption in back offices, where it can be used to boost productivity and reduce errors.

Artificial Intelligence

Another impactful technology in the beverage sector is artificial intelligence (AI). As beverage workflows become increasingly digitized, they generate more data. AI algorithms can analyze that data to turn it into actionable insights, helping beverage manufacturers predict and adapt to incoming changes and optimize their operations.

Common industry thinking holds that companies can only optimize two of three key variables—time, cost and quality—simultaneously. However, it’s often difficult for humans to determine which is the most valuable area for improvement in their businesses. AI can analyze workflow data to reveal weak points and highlight changes that would have the most significant impact, helping leaders make these decisions.

AI can also help predict future changes, including shifting consumer demand. With this insight, beverage producers can adjust to minimize losses and capitalize early on new trends. Those that don’t embrace AI analytics may quickly fall behind the competition as this technology becomes increasingly common.

The Internet of Things

As AI adoption grows, the Internet of Things (IoT) can help beverage companies make the most of these algorithms. IoT devices give previously unconnected machines wireless connectivity, providing more data points for AI models to analyze, improving their accuracy. This connectivity and data collection can also improve transparency.

One of the most impactful use cases for IoT sensors is in the supply chain. Connected tracking devices can provide real-time updates on shipment locations, temperature, vibrations and other factors. If anything falls out of acceptable parameters or schedules, they can alert relevant stakeholders so they can adapt to ensure safe, timely shipments.

IoT devices can also improve machine health by alerting workers to needed repairs. This data-driven, need-based approach prevents costly breakdowns while minimizing downtime from unnecessary maintenance.

Biotechnology

While many of the most impactful technologies in the beverage industry appear within manufacturing facilities, some focus on earlier workflows. Biotechnology, such as gene editing, can optimize the farming operations that produce the ingredients beverage companies need.

Some bioengineered crops require less water to grow or are pest-resistant, minimizing the need for pesticides. These upgrades reduce farms’ ongoing expenses, making beverage ingredients cheaper for production facilities. Other bioengineering processes can make certain ingredients healthier or less environmentally impactful, both of which appeal to consumers.

Emerging biotechnology solutions let beverage companies use specially designed enzymes to gauge milk contamination and spoilage better. With these biological markers, businesses can ensure they don’t send poor-quality products to market and can trace contamination issues, leading to long-term improvements.

Renewable Energy

Another increasingly impactful technology for beverage companies today is renewable energy. As climate issues become more prominent, consumer preferences lean towards sustainable companies and products, even if that means paying more for products. Switching to renewable power helps energy-hungry beverage factories adapt to this demand and protect the environment.

Because renewables such as solar and wind are technologies, not fuel sources, they will only become cheaper and more efficient over time. Consequently, switching to these technologies is becoming an increasingly viable option for companies. They can also reduce energy costs long-term, as facilities begin to generate their own power instead of buying it from the grid.

Additionally, growing climate urgency may lead to increased regulations around industrial energy sources. Shifting to renewable power now can ensure beverage companies minimize disruption from any changing legislation.

Virtually every industry today is undergoing a tech-driven transformation. Capitalizing on this movement means being able to separate the buzzwords from the technologies that hold the most promise. These five technologies are among the most impactful for beverage companies today. As their adoption grows, they could dramatically alter the face of the industry.

Bottle tops
FST Soapbox

Five Advances in Food Processing Machinery Driving Growth

By Emily Newton
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Bottle tops

Food processing machinery is experiencing some incredible innovations, from intelligent robots to energy-efficient motors for food and beverage processing. Adopting these emerging technologies in your food and beverage processing facility can provide valuable benefits, such as improved food safety, greater efficiency and higher productivity. Following are five advances in food processing machinery that are transforming the industry.

Next Generation Energy-Efficient Motors

Energy efficiency is a growing concern across all industries, and it’s not just about reducing carbon footprints. Cutting back on emissions due to power consumption is certainly important, but food and beverage companies can also experience monetary benefits from optimizing their electricity usage.

Subscribe to the Food Safety Tech weekly newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest news and information on food safety.Today’s next-gen motors for food and beverage processing are becoming much more energy-efficient right out of the box. The rise of soft-start and variable frequency drive engines is playing a key role in these innovations.

Soft-start motors cause less stress on machinery by protecting devices from sudden power surges. They start up using a slightly lower, limited initial charge rather than a sudden full charge. This can be compared to waking up with versus without an alarm clock—the former involves waking up abruptly while the latter is less stressful. The result is that soft-start motors allow machinery to warm up more gently and ease into operation, rather than straining electrical components with a sudden influx of energy.

Variable frequency drive motors use much less energy than other motor options. Unlike variable speed drive motors, variable frequency drive motor technology is limited specifically to AC motors. A variable frequency drive allows an AC motor to change its speed by changing the frequency of the power going through the motor. A variable frequency drive is essentially a control system for machinery engines, allowing them to start up with a lower voltage drop, similar to soft-start motors, and the speed can be adjusted to fit the unique needs of specific devices and tasks.

These energy-efficient motors also tend to be smaller in volume and weight than their conventional counterparts.

Soft Robotic Grippers

Automation, including the use of robotics, in the food and beverage industry is already happening. These technologies can deliver significant benefit as businesses struggle to keep up with demand even with fewer employees. However, processing foods like pastries, fruit or bread can be difficult with robots because their stiff grippers crush soft items when trying to pick them up. Soft grippers solve this problem.

One soft gripper designed for handling delicate food items was inspired by octopi and squids. The rubber fingers inflate and deflate using pressurized air so they open and close to precise dimensions. The gripper is nimble enough to lift items as delicate as marshmallows.

Autonomous AI Robots

Not only can automation help companies struggling with labor shortages, it can also help improve food processing efficiency. Autonomous robots, often powered by AI, are incredibly efficient at performing repetitive tasks. They can get more done in less time with fewer mistakes compared to the average employee. Food processing companies can use these robots to perform repetitive, mundane tasks that don’t appeal to employees. Workers can then be reskilled, upskilled or reassigned to more engaging and important roles.

IoT Machinery Monitoring

The Internet of Things (IoT) makes food processing machinery more intelligent and inter-connected. IoT can be used in various ways in the food and beverage industry, but it is especially helpful for monitoring and optimizing operations on the manufacturing floor. Sensors collect and relay data to a central hub in real-time. That information can be used to inform automated systems or production timelines.

IoT sensors can reveal inefficiencies and bottlenecks in production, giving companies concrete goals to act on. They can be used to monitor the health of food processing machinery, allowing for predictive maintenance, which involves performing tuneups on equipment as soon as signs of a potential malfunction appear.

The agriculture industry is exploring IoT, as well. For example, farmers and water management companies are using it in conjunction with AI algorithms to improve irrigation systems, cut energy costs and improve water usage.

Automated Food and Facility Safety

Health and safety are among the foremost priorities for every food and beverage company. Technological advances are making it easier for companies to stay on top of health and safety measures.

For example, food processing and storing companies can use AI to autonomously monitor and regulate temperature, helping prevent the growth and spread of E. coli and other diseases. This is achieved using IoT thermostats that relay real-time temperature data to an AI algorithm, which keeps an eye on temps throughout the facility and makes adjustments as needed.

Food processing machinery is in the midst of some truly exciting advancements that are helping businesses in the industry provide better service, products and working conditions. Cutting-edge motors for food and beverage equipment allow companies to save money on energy costs, while next-gen robotics open the door to a wealth of automation possibilities.

With the help of AI and IoT, food and beverage companies can ensure their operations are running as smoothly as possible. There will certainly be more incredible advancements in food processing technology in the years ahead.

Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine
FST Soapbox

Packaging Automation Can Be an Essential Tool for Food Manufacturers

By Emily Newton
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Emily Newton, Revolutionized Magazine

Food and beverage manufacturers face various challenges—including a labor shortage, rising demand and ongoing supply chain disruptions. Food packaging automation can be an essential tool for these businesses, as the technology can improve manufacturing productivity without hiring additional workers.

As demand continues to rise over the next few years, and as the labor shortage continues, packaging automation will likely become more important. This is why manufacturers are turning to the technology and how innovations in Industry 4.0 solutions may reshape food manufacturing this decade.

Food and Beverage Manufacturers Are Doing More With Less

Food manufacturers face the same market challenges that most companies are navigating right now. Even two years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply chain remains unstable, demand is volatile and job openings continue to outstrip available workers.

Consumer expectations are also changing. A growing segment of American shoppers expects businesses to deliver items faster than ever, putting greater pressure on manufacturers to accelerate production and logistics operations.

These trends aren’t likely to reverse anytime soon, even as the pandemic eases and vaccines become available globally. Some experts predict that the labor shortage may be on track to last for years, and the lack of essential raw materials or components may similarly drag on well into the future. This means hunkering down and attempting to weather current market conditions will not be an effective strategy. Instead, businesses will have to experiment with new ways to improve productivity, reduce operating costs and accelerate delivery times.

Automation may become an essential strategy, especially for food and beverage manufacturing tasks that have traditionally been time-consuming and challenging to automate.

How Food Packaging Automation Helps Manufacturers Stay Competitive

Manufacturers that need to increase factory throughput may struggle to bring on additional labor necessary to improve production. Instead, solutions that help them increase productivity without hiring—like packaging automation—may help companies meet existing demand.

Packaging automation tools allow manufacturers to automate various tasks that are tedious, dull, time-consuming and potentially dangerous.

Industry 4.0 technology also allows packaging solutions to automate work that previously required human labor. For example, AI-powered automation systems can use machine vision—algorithms that enable machines to “see” objects — for quality control and manufacturing purposes. These systems may be able to automatically package items or visually inspect them for defects, allowing businesses to improve quality control processes without the dedication of additional labor.

Food packaging automation can also help make food and beverage products more consistent and safer for workers and consumers. Quality control processes are often tedious or repetitive. Throughout a shift, workers assigned to these tasks tend to slow down and make mistakes, potentially allowing defective or dangerous products to move further along the production line.

Automated packaging systems are remarkably consistent when well-maintained. They can run for hours at a time without the same risks that may come with human workers assigned to tedious or repetitive tasks.

Some internet grocery retailers are also using a combination of AI and RFID to improve package branding and drive sales. RFID allows businesses to embed unique identifiers into the packaging of every product they sell, making it possible to collect deeper information about consumer demands and purchasing habits.

Other AI systems use IoT devices that gather real-time data on equipment operations to streamline or automate maintenance checks. For example, a predictive maintenance approach uses AI forecasting algorithms and IoT data to monitor machines and predict when they will need maintenance. The approach is similar to preventive maintenance but is more effective at keeping machines online. In practice, the forecasting power of a predictive maintenance algorithm can reduce downtime and maintenance costs.

Similar AI technology can also be used in the packaging design process. An AI algorithm trained on a library of packaging data may be used to create new packaging—helping businesses identify novel options when it comes to shape or material choice.

Other Advantages of Packaging Automation

Reducing the cost of packaging can also allow manufacturers to spend more money on higher-quality food wrapping—which can, in turn, improve customer satisfaction and drive revenue. For example, many manufacturers have begun to offer eco-friendly packaging materials that can be customized with branding elements. These packaging materials will attract customers who want to buy products from eco-friendly brands. They will also help manufacturers build deeper client relationships while growing additional company awareness.

Over time, these decisions can help a business transform its packaging into a branding tool. This will require an additional up-front investment, but the improvements will pay for themselves over time.
Packaging Automation Can Help Food and Beverage Manufacturers Adapt

Cutting-edge industry technology has made packaging solutions more effective than ever. The right equipment allows food and beverage manufacturers to automate various packaging, design and maintenance tasks—making individual facilities and businesswide processes much more efficient.

James Gunn-Wilkerson, CMX
Retail Food Safety Forum

The Future Is Now: AI Takes Journey from Supply Chain to Today’s Restaurant Kitchens

By James Gunn-Wilkerson
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James Gunn-Wilkerson, CMX

Futurist Ross Dawson has said that AI and automation will shape the future of work, and it also promises to transform our lives beyond the office. According to the World Economic Forum, when AI, which provides the ability to “enable devices to learn, reason and process information like humans,” is combined with Internet of Things (IoT) devices and systems, it creates AIoT. This super duo has the potential to power smart homes, smart cities, smart industries and even our smartwatches and fitness trackers, a market estimated by Gartner to be worth $87 billion by 2023. More importantly, this “interconnectedness” will change the way we interact with our devices as well as the way we will live and work in the future.

In the restaurant industry, we’re already seeing glimpses of this interconnectedness take shape, and in the past year, we’ve experienced major technological advancements that have transformed every facet of the way food establishments work. Reflecting on those advancements, I want to take a moment to share three areas of AI impact that are bubbling up in the restaurant sector in 2021.

1: AI-powered Intelligent Kitchens

From ghost kitchens to traditional kitchens, the “back of the house” continues to be a prime target for AI and automation. While great progress has been made, in many ways it seems like we’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to how far AI can take today’s restaurants. But every now and then, we hear examples of AI powering the future of our industry. For example, Nala Robotics, Inc. will be opening what it calls “the world’s first state-of-the-art intelligent restaurant” in Naperville, Illinois this year. The company says the AI-based robotic kitchen “can create dishes from any cuisine around the world, using authentic recipes from celebrated chefs”. A press release from Nala Robotics states that its flagship restaurant is taking “the first step in the food service industry with AI-powered service, addressing many of the issues affecting restaurant owners during COVID-19,” and it will “provide consumers an endless variety of cuisine without potential contamination from human contact.” This is the new frontier in intelligent kitchens, and it couldn’t have come at a better time, with the pandemic forcing restaurants to reimagine the way they do business.

2: AI-Driven Labor Shifts.

You can’t talk about AI in the restaurant industry without also having a conversation about the implications for the modern workforce. With AI in restaurant kitchens and beyond, the impact on the labor force is undeniable. By 2024, Gartner predicts “that these technologies will replace almost 69% of the manager’s workload.” But that’s not entirely a bad thing. Instead of manually filling out forms and updating records, managers can turn to AI to automate these and other tedious tasks. “By using AI…they can spend less time managing transactions and can invest more time on learning, performance management and goal setting,” Gartner adds.Managers can also use the extra time to focus more effort on the customer and employee experience. And indeed they should: In a recent Deloitte report, 60% of guests surveyed indicated that a positive experience would influence them to dine at a restaurant more frequently.

Looking at the impact of AI on labor at all levels, from the CEO to the entry-level wage earner, the shift, at its best, will be a transition to more meaningful—and less mundane—work. The evolution of humanity has taken us to the point we’re now at now, with food production and delivery processes becoming increasingly automated. This has been an evolution generations in the making. In an ideal world, everyone at every level of the organization should benefit from this new wave of technology. For example, automation can and should be used to open the door to new training and new opportunities for low-wage earners to learn new skills that elevate career paths, increase income and improve quality of life.

3: AI and Global Supply Chain Transformation

From the farm all the way to the table, AI is now poised to transform the global supply chain. From my perspective, the biggest impact will be around driving sustainability efforts. Restaurant and grocery brands are already beginning to leverage AI to forecast their food supply needs based on customer demand, leading to less over-ordering and less food waste to support sustainability initiatives. One company in this space, FourKites, is creating what it calls “the digital supply chain of the future.” Using real-time visibility and machine learning, FourKites powers and optimizes global supply chains, making them “automated, interconnected and collaborative—spanning transportation, warehouses, stores, trucks and more.”

In addition to predictive planning, more and more brands will start to use AI to create incident risk management models to identify trends and risks in the supply chain to determine whether bad or recalled products are originating from a specific supplier, distributor, or due to an environmental variable.With all of these changes, the need for comprehensive data standards will multiply as suppliers and distributors around the world work together to bring us produce and packaged food from all corners of the globe. Data standards will be critical to traceability and the exchange of critical tracking events and key data elements, and advances in data standards will power the meta-data needed to provide better insight for food quality and regulatory compliance, crisis management, and recalls—at scale.

Research firm Forrester states that, in the end, the greatest impact resulting from an investment in robotics and other technologies that automate operational tasks is improved customer experience (CX). “Most companies believe that investment in AI, automation, and robotics for engagement will decrease operational costs. While this is true, our research shows that the revenue upside from delivering better CX could deliver a greater impact on the bottom line over time,” Forrester states.

As a business engaged in digitizing and transforming supply chain operations, our team couldn’t agree with Forrester more. But we believe it will take striking the right balance between technology and the human touch to not only drive stronger CX, but to also create a world in which AI is implemented for the greater good—a world in which people, processes, business and technology all win.