Refrigerator Temperature Monitoring System for Restaurants

A refrigerator temperature monitoring system will continuously monitor and record the temperature data from the freezers, cold rooms, and other refrigeration equipment and provide insights on a cloud-based dashboard. It will alert restaurant staff in case of any temperature deviations or anomaly detection.

The success of your restaurant depends on proactive attention by your team to every aspect of your operations, from making sure that the food is delivered on time to satisfying customer needs. In such a high-touch and fast-paced environment, managing refrigeration equipment can often fall by the wayside, resulting in loss or expensive equipment maintenance.

Furthermore, food safety is a major concern for restaurants. A single freezer failure, for instance, might cost a Quick Service Restaurant a lot in terms of missed potential revenue as well as financial costs. Tainted food can also result in sicknesses, litigation issues, and harm brand’s reputation.

Large temperature fluctuations in various refrigeration units such as reach-in coolers, walk-in coolers, freezers, and so on expose customers to the risk of food poisoning, restaurant management teams to food spoilage along with health department fines, and restaurant brands to social media backlash.

In US, perishable food items must be stored at 41°F or lower, as per the FDA Food Code. Most of the restaurants that were inspected regularly fell short of this standard. Many restaurants require kitchen employees to manually check the refrigeration temperatures since there isn’t a more effective method. Unfortunately, this manual method is highly unreliable as staff do not carry out this routine task responsibly, and even worse, management will not know if the manual monitoring is not carried out at all.

Today, automated, reliable, and inexpensive technology is available to monitor all refrigeration equipment using just an internet connection, giving restaurants peace of mind. It’s known as the Internet of Things or IoT. Wireless temperature monitoring sensors powered by IoT enable you to continuously monitor and manage the temperature of all refrigeration units across all of your properties on your smartphone or laptop. You just need an internet connection to access the cloud-based dashboard and remotely monitor and manage everything at once. Furthermore, the sensors can also monitor humidity and air quality levels in real-time.

How does IoT-powered wireless Refrigerator Temperature Monitoring systems work?

Refrigerator temperature monitoring is a part of the IoT powered energy & asset management system, making it easy to access crucial information about food storage temperature whenever necessary. The term “Internet of Things” (IoT) refers to a network of interconnected, internet-connected things that can gather data, transmit it, and carry out command-and-control operations across a network without the need for human intervention. Let’s take a look at an IoT system to better grasp how a wireless refrigerator temperature monitoring system functions. It usually has five aspects including, sensors/actuators, connectivity, data processing, user interface and closed loop actuation/ticketing.

1. Sensors/Actuators: These are the devices that can collect data and act as per the instructions. An example of a sensor can be a temperature sensor that collects and sends the temperature data of refrigeration units. Similarly, a thermostat is an actuator which can control a refrigerator.
2. Connectivity: The devices either directly connect to the cloud or connect with an on-site gateway over wired or wireless protocols and the gateway then connects to the internet with its own IP communication.
3. Data Processing: The data sent to the cloud is then processed to make sense of it. It can be as simple as processing the temperature data collected from the sensors to check whether it’s in the compliance range or not.
4. Dashboard: The processed data is then presented on a dashboard that is used by a user. It provides centralized visibility & can be used to take corrective actions. Now, what happens if the temperature of a refrigeration unit is not in the permissible range? Such an anomaly can lead to automated closed loop action either in the form of a ticket that also gets displayed on the dashboard along with an SMS/email alert, or as a closed loop control as explained below.
5. Closed loop actuation: It involves intelligent automated response of devices to the changes in environmental characteristics. As an example, actuating the thermostat of a refrigeration unit to maintain the set temperature.

ZenConnect, our top-of-the-line IoT solution for restaurants, is more than just a refrigerator temperature monitoring system, it’s a full-fledged energy and asset management solution. It connects networks of smart sensors in real time to collect, analyze, and communicate data. As a comprehensive building automation solution, it enables and provides:

1. Centralized Monitoring
2. Operational & Occupant Comfort Compliance
3. Energy Efficiency
4. Remote Asset Management 
5. Predictive Maintenance
6. Automated Ticketing System

Flexible, easy to deploy, and scalable, ZenConnect assists restaurants in identifying and responding to refrigeration temperature fluctuations, freezer outages and other equipment failures, while also improving operational efficiency and food safety. Some of the major benefits include:

1. 30% improvement in food safety compliance
2. 30% reduction in equipment breakdown
3. 10% reduction in energy expenses
4. 30% improvement in occupant comfort

To sum it up, our system uses sensors installed in restaurants to gather data and send it to the cloud platform. The platform analyzes data to produce a range of useful insights, such as an automated alarm when a temperature threshold is breached. Using a dashboard tool, restaurant managers can watch patterns across several locations to identify problem areas and build best practices to improve food safety and lower energy costs via predictive analytics.

Know more about ZenConnect, its use cases, benefits & case studies for retail chains & QSR/Restaurants.

Get in touch with our IoT specialists to learn how ZenConnect can improve the bottom line of your business.