Despite advances in food safety and quality technology, foodborne illness tends to be a global problem, and the US Centers for Disease Control estimates one in six Americans falls prey every year. Ironically, more than 100 attendees of the recent Food Safety Summit became ill after consuming food at the convention center; nowhere, it seems, is safe.
However, the use of temperature monitoring tools like automated dataloggers can ensure food stays within safe parameters and is less susceptible to pathogens. Stew Thompson, marketing specialist with CAS DataLoggers, told FoodProductionDaily how dataloggers can make a food professional's job easier, and the food supply safer.
Automated data collection
Dataloggers replace the need for workers to take manual measurements—not everyone remembers or has time—and are also a great way to ensure compliance with HACCP and other regulations. Using temperature dataloggers and other automated solutions is key to ensuring food product quality and vendor reputation, and this technology is already seeing widespread adoption.
By continually monitoring food temperature, dataloggers allow workers to ensure product temperatures don’t go outside the often-narrow safety windows that allow bacteria and other harmful pathogens to thrive. These products are ideal for warehouses and restaurant owners to prevent inventory losses due to fridge failures and power outages—some models even have remote alarming to alert users of violations outside of work hours.
Datalogger options
CAS DataLoggers temperature dataloggers monitor food products through every stage of their product life, including processing, packaging, storage, and shipping. This includes every phase of production and logistics to protect the product all the way to the receiver.
We provide cold-chain data loggers from many different manufacturers to track food products all the way from farm to fork. ECCS I-Plug Plus dataloggers maintain cold-chain transparency both in storage and for shipments en route to receivers; drivers just place a few of these compact loggers in with their products and check their temp status during stops with just a look at the LED status lights.
These single-use loggers also import data directly to a computer via USB, for example connecting to a driver’s tablet to show receivers the entire temperature history at a glance. By tearing off the tab to start the I-Plug Plus, it’s easy for drivers to tell when the logger has been started and is recording.
Smart sensors and Internet connectivity are quickly becoming the industry standard as device size and cost continue to come down. We’re planning on introducing RFID tag products to give users an even easier way to check their product status at every link in the cold chain and show proof of best practices to receivers.