Internet of Things: Food Retail & Catering

Supermarkets, coffee shops, restaurants and catering kitchens all deal with perishable food. The fear being that through a malfunction or a regulatory issue, the food fuelling their business perishes and losses are made. The Internet of Things can step in to help avoid these situations. Here’s how: 

Malfunctions

The freezer warms up to temperatures above freezing. The coffee machine breaks down mid-morning. The bread oven doesn’t heat as quickly as it should. These are just three examples of malfunctions that will cost a food business a lot of money. And these are also three examples of the many that the Internet of Things can solve for.

Through the constant recording of data and charting data over time, an IoT-enable device can send alerts when something out of the ordinary happens. Oftentimes, this can be a forewarning to a larger issue or if it is a total outage, a real-time alert means that the business owner can react regardless of the time; day or night. 

Regulatory Efforts 

Health and safety regulatory bodies in many countries require food retail and catering businesses to record and report on their equipment. This helps prove that frozen goods have remained at a constant temperature to avoid freezer burn etc. Instead of recording this manually and monitoring staff to complete this task, an IoT-enabled device would do this automatically for you while recording any issues as well. 

Energy Savings

Ovens, hot food cabinets, deli counters, extractor fans, fridges, coffee machines—the list of energy consuming items in a food business is long. In many businesses refrigeration alone guzzles up 50 percent of energy usage.

With rising energy costs around the globe, smart products will help businesses save. Taking a freezer unit as an example, instead of being on constant deep freezing mode without considering outside influences, a smart freezer will adjust the temperature. When a freezer hasn’t been opened in a while, it may reduce the energy output to maintain temperature. If a door is left open, it will send an alert so that it can be closed and no energy is wasted. 

Business Sense

It makes good business sense to have connected devices in food and retail. It helps avoid any downtime because of broken equipment as well as eliminating wastage of food and energy. A clear win-win! Find out more about how you can develop smart food retail & catering products: