During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant disruptions to K-12 school food services nationwide. School nutrition directors were forced to rapidly adapt their school cafeteria and kitchen operations to continue feeding students while maintaining standards for K-12 nutrition. Key to these adaptations was their realization that a Sensing-as-a-Service solution would not only solve many of the crises brought on by the pandemic, but more importantly for the longer term, significantly improve efficiencies of time, money, and labor by replacing outdated manual pen-and-paper methods of temperature monitoring with the power of connected IoT technologies. In early 2020, K-12 districts closed schools as part of initial COVID-19 quarantine measures. Many school nutrition directors had to …
Posts about Food Safety (4)
When times get tough, Americans get creative with how they stretch budgets. That's why today's shoppers are fighting inflation and financial strain with an unlikely hero: frozen food. Enter: what SmartSense calls "Frozenomics" — the economic aspects of frozen food. At a time when frozen food serves as a safety net, Frozenomics is becoming increasingly complex as frozen food volumes surge through the cold chain. This raises some important questions: Do frozen food brands have the cold chain strategies needed to ensure products move from the factory to the store freezer without meltdowns? And what do consumers really think about frozen food — its nutritional value, safety, and the industry's commitment to protecting and increasing visibility for both? To answer these questions and explore …
While a minority of food companies and healthcare organizations continue to manually collect temperature logs to meet compliance regulations, most enterprises monitoring food, medicine, and vaccines have transitioned to digitalized sensors and probes that automatically measure and store temperature readings. That’s great news. Even better, more sophisticated methods are now available that enhance the use of digital sensors: temperature monitoring systems that incorporate machine learning (ML) models for advanced analysis of the health and performance of refrigeration and freezing assets that protect perishable products. Ultimately, the goal of these measures is to collect and analyze large data sets to predict and prevent potentially damaging excursions to ensure product safety and …
Why Consistency Matters Consistency drives sales. It's one of the most reliable predictors of long-term success in the restaurant industry, and the reason is straightforward: customers crave the predictable. Order a Big Mac in Richmond, Virginia, or Portland, Oregon, and it tastes exactly the same. That's consistency in action, and many industry experts point to it as one of the core reasons major fast food chains like McDonald's have built such enduring, loyal customer bases. It's hard to argue with that. What Needs to Be Consistent in Your Restaurant Consistency isn't just about the food on the plate. It refers to the full experience a customer has across every visit and every location. That experience breaks down into three key areas: Food quality: Both temperature and taste need to be …
Your restaurant’s cleanliness is one of the biggest outward indications of your success with all daily operations. If your dining room and bathroom are spic-n-span, it’s very likely you’re executing all tasks with similar attention to detail. Not only that, but customers visiting a clean restaurant are much more likely to be repeat customers and bring new customers with them. However, it’s hard to know if your restaurant is being cleaned properly when you aren’t around. Here are some unique tips on how to improve your restaurant’s cleanliness and improve your customer’s experience. 1. Hold the whole team accountable Accountability is key to creating a culture with consistent cleanliness in mind. Holding the whole team accountable means everyone works together. One employee not performing …
How Technology is Changing the Restaurant Industry Technology is making its mark on the restaurant industry by changing the way restaurants operate and adapt to new challenges. For a restaurant to be successful in today’s world, it must be agile and adapt quickly to changes in procedures and protocols. Here is a look at some of the ways technology is transforming the restaurant industry. How technology has helped restaurants adapt Restaurant adaptability is more important now than ever before. The pressures of an ever-changing world have forced restaurants to make huge technological changes practically overnight. Mobile ordering Because quarantines have closed down restaurant floors, ordering online has almost become the new norm. Restaurants that quickly pivoted to online ordering, …