Tracking time and temperature

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 6, 2006 by Mina Williams

For the foodservice industry, ice and refrigeration are the leading advancements when it comes to food safety applications. However, many operators are looking to new devices, rooted in technology, to deliver accurate and timely time and temperature readings. The new breed of fast-acting, accurate temperature sensors in addition to data loggers, probes and chillers are delivering the confidence in food safety practices that restaurateurs find worth the investment.

One of the categories of instruments that have made great leaps and bounds in the technology arena is that of data loggers. As wireless technologies are becoming de rigeur in many restaurants, kitchen systems are latching onto the technology in an effort to provide a log of food safety practices. With wireless Internet systems being used to transfer data from front-off-the-house applications to back-office systems, the expanded use of the system is a natural.

"It is becoming more cost efficient to incorporate wireless [capabilities] into the kitchen and record the whole process of food, not just recording the temperature of items in the oven or on the grill," says Tom Fisher, vice president of Alpine, Utah-based TermoWorks. "Recording the whole process impacts decision making of the process a food goes through once you have the ability to record, store and output data. Data loggers have come a long way to serve the food safety mission."

Sensors and probes also enhance food safety, along with food quality, while they reduce shrink. Long used in the grocery industry to alert managers when temperatures of cold cases fall out of range, before thousands of dollars of product winds up in the dumpster, such alerts are now being sought by foodservice sites as well.

When the storage temperature requirement drifts outside the optimal band, alerts are triggered either at the walk-in or remotely, through a paging, email or cell phone system to a lead person. When a staff member is alerted, action immediately can be taken to adjust or fix the problem in an effort to save the stored inventory.

At Brinker International's Maggiano's Little Italy restaurants, alarms are set to go off when the temperature of a walk-in or freezer rises above acceptable levels. This use of technology is just one segment of an overall food safety system.

"We have a set program with hourly drills, nightly walk-throughs, biweekly checks and quarterly outside independent inspections," says Deb Breuler, executive chef. "Noting the readings from digital thermometers, logging and recording are just part of our food safety system."

Even before an alert goes off, tracking and data logging of cabinet temperature can tip off operators as to when a repair or adjustment is imminent, thus preventing the entire load from being spoiled.

"Simply a compressor overheating, a door left open or a clogged condenser can impact the temperature of a walk in," explains Mike Kaufman, refrigeration marketing manager for Troy, Ohio-based Hobart Corp. "The sensors inside the unit also can trace the voltage used, so that operators can trace their energy consumption. This is a key piece of data in today's energy conscious kitchen."

With many health departments using the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, or HACCP, model as a precept, operators are finding that any device that can provide time and temperature data can prove to be not only a food safety tool but also a labor-saving instrument.

Blast chillers, once thought to be used only for hospital and retirement facility use, are finding a place in the kitchens of operators aiming for the highest HACCP compliance. These smart equipment pieces can chill product from 180 degrees Fahrenheit to from 35 degrees to 38 degrees Fahrenheit in a matter of 90 minutes. With an onboard recorder for data, the operator can instruct the printing of a document for HACCP recordkeeping with a time-at-start bar graph on a continuum from the start to the end of the chilling cycle, complete with dozens of milestones. The equipment also can be instructed to record a label, which is attached to the finished product, indicating the operator who oversaw the blast chiller's work, the time when the product was created and the shelf life of the product when kept at optimal temperatures.

Usage of blast chillers has not swept the foodservice industry. Manufacturers point out that larger chains, in addition to healthcare facilities, have been the early adopters of the equipment, due primarily to the fact that larger chains practice large quantity production and want to maintain vigilance on bacterial growth.

"Our experience is that even chains struggle with any technology applications because of high turnover," says John David, business development manager for Hobart/Traulsen of Troy, Ohio. "The industry is learning to adopt technology close to what is necessary. Historically, among restaurants, when technology is adopted, all that happens is complications to life or the technology didn't work as operators thought it would. Now that HACCP is such a compelling program, restaurateurs want to know the data. This data gives the assurance that liability will be taken out of the business."