When it comes to food and beverage processing, traceability is the first line of defense against damaging spoilage and recalls. As a result, over half of businesses cite traceability transparency as key to settling customer concerns. Careful research compiled in Zebra’s latest Food Safety Supply Chain Vision Study shows that as little as 20% of customers actually trust companies to ensure food safety, which is why breakdowns in food safety produce dire consequences such as:
- Severe financial loss incurred from recalls, spoilage, and heavy fines and fees. Recurrent issues can also bar companies from selling products within a specified timeframe, further affecting the bottom line.
- Damaged brand identity as recalls must be publicly declared. As much as 60% of customers say they would never visit a restaurant after contracting an illness, which means companies must deal with the consequences of unsafe practices even after errors are corrected.
- Legal action from affected customers can halt productivity until all errors are rectified.
- Regulatory responses can prompt long-term legal changes, creating more steps and obstacles for your inventory to move quickly and efficiently to the customer.
- Broken business relationships as partners may wish to disassociate from impacted brands in order to safeguard their own brand identity, ultimately leading to disruptive gaps in the supply chain.
To secure efficient traceability, supply chains have sought to strengthen connectivity and visibility. Although large-scale solutions such as RFID tracking can expand visibility within an entire facility, advanced temperature monitoring can provide closer visibility into inventory status in and out of the cold chain.
Why Start with Temperature Monitoring?
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that around 1 in 6 Americans contract a foodborne illness each year. Improper temperature storage plays a vital role in this since it enables rapid bacteria and toxin growth. From the production floor to the grocery aisle, sensitive inventory will most likely encounter a great variety of temperatures. Effective temperature sensing technologies like Zebra’s newest Electric Temperature Sensors can help establish:
- Real-time visibility of in-transit inventory – Track environment temperatures as inventory moves throughout the warehouse and in the field via Bluetooth-enabled sensors.
- On the go alerts – Systematic alerts highlight when you need to take action based on your cold chain parameters.
- Sharable status and updates anywhere in the globe – Access and share updates via your preferred device. That means you can easily integrate a traceability system using your current enterprise devices with no backend modifications.
- Automated temperature reporting for reduced errors – ISG Technologies continues to empower businesses with automated solutions that eliminate manual data entry for less errors that could lead to wasteful labor and spoilage.
Temperature-sensing is only the beginning of effective traceability in food safety. Contact ISG Technologies at 800-566-3310 or info@isgtechnologies.com to learn how you can start upgrading your cold chain for complete operational visibility that enhances your competitive edge.