Upgrading the Clipboard with Data Loggers to Document Cold Storage Temps

Last year, the kitchen had a few equipment failures with its refrigerators and freezers. Food safety regulations state that once products go above the 40 degrees Fahrenheit safe zone, staff have only about four hours to get it back to temperature before the food has to be discarded. These equipment issues inconvenienced the kitchen, as staff had to move food between fridges several times to keep everything fresh.

The chef and his assistants had previously tracked temperatures using thermometers integrated into their storage units. But when the team would be busy preparing food for long stretches of time or left for the night or weekend, they couldn’t check the temperatures as often as needed.

To keep this from happening again, Southern ordered wireless temperature data loggers to monitor each storage unit. Wired systems weren’t practical given the kitchen layout. Southern attached the loggers to the front of the units using Velcro tabs, and the data loggers’ external sensors were secured inside the refrigerator. An Ethernet network base station was also installed to collect the logger readings automatically.

Now the data loggers automatically take temperature readings once an hour and check for alarm conditions every five minutes. This way, Southern chefs can work knowing that an alarm will trigger whenever temperatures go outside safe limits, indicating that a fridge is failing and starting to warm up. The company also has the ability to report safe temperature data if ever necessary.

Using advanced data loggers in the food industry can prevent contamination issues. It’s time to upgrade the clipboard. Network connected loggers can negate many food safety monitoring issues through temperature control, offsite monitoring, and notifications.

Knuth is the president of TandD U.S. Reach him at [email protected].