More than 10 million people fall ill each year from infectious intestinal disease in the U.K., according to the most recent data from the Food Standards Agency – resulting in approximately 280,000 cases from Campylobacter alone.
Recommended temperatures and policies are in place to help the foodservice industry combat this important public health issue, but that’s only one step for which foodservice providers must account in the supply chain. It is equally important to consistently maintain recommended temperatures in storage and prep areas to truly maximize safety precautions.
The good news is the food industry now has more robust technology and improved temperature-monitoring instruments than ever before to help protect customers from dangerous illnesses.
Integrating these resources into a comprehensive safety strategy will help drive higher safety standards, as well as compliance with industry regulations. Additionally, foodservice professionals who turn to newer technologies can automate key processes to achieve a variety of business benefits.
So what resources are best suited to minimize foods safety issues, protect consumers and boost the bottom line? The answer is automation.
Historically, temperature monitoring has relied on staff members in a fast-paced, high-turnover industry. And as with any manual task, human error can and will affect data consistency, quality and accuracy of that work, and in the case of monitoring, result in inadequate or unsafe conditions.
With wireless and paperless temperature monitoring solutions, however, automation drastically reduces the chances for human error to occur – keeping both a restaurant’s customer base and its reputation safe. These monitoring solutions deliver more accurate records readily available without having to sort through paper mountains of old gravy-stained notebooks. They also provide constant environment monitoring – a feature far too time-consuming and costly to expect of a manual monitor.
Comark’s Cloud and Wi-Fi technologies are among the best solutions available to provide the high-priority HACCP compliance that can provide peace of mind for foodservice providers.
The Comark Cloud, for example, utilizes Wi-Fi-equipped devices to automate temperature monitoring and record-keeping across the spectrum of foodservice operations. Wireless devices are placed in crucial areas – like freezers, coolers, prep stations and displays – to continuously monitor temperature conditions of the environment, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Utilizing the data that these systems provide can help the bottom line by preventing large amounts of temperature-sensitive inventories from being spoiled – and written off as a financial loss to the company – when freezing, cooling or heating systems unexpectedly go awry or completely fail.
As temperature-monitoring technology diversifies and becomes more accessible – and more widely utilized – across the industry, foodborne illnesses and regulatory concerns can be reduced drastically. But foodservice providers must be sure they are partnering with a credible resource that understands the multi-disciplinary approach that is requiring to achieving safety standards and compliance requirements.
By: David Primhak
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