Locally sourced restaurant chain Dig monitors food safety with IoT

A restaurant retailer that prepares its meals from scratch daily is ensuring correct product handling and storage with Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

Dig is utilizing IoT sensing and monitoring solutions from SmartSense by Digi to digitalize task management. In addition to more closely tracking how products are handled and stored, Dig will also leverage the SmartSense technology to monitor refrigeration equipment at all locations to ensure freshness at scale.

In addition, the retailer intends to improve employee efficiency and enable store associates to focus on FDA Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance using digital checklists and prescriptive workflows. Using one centralized dashboard. Dig employees are able to remotely manage quality and safety operations across all store locations.

“We needed a vendor that could grow with us and provide added levels of consistency and quality to our solution,” said Tracy Kim, Dig’s COO. “SmartSense was the perfect fit. Leveraging IoT-enabled digital checklists will help us stay consistent and efficient as we increase our number of locations.”

“Organizations increasingly need ways to simplify compliance, improve efficiency, reduce operating expenses – and most importantly, delight their customers,” said Guy Yehiav, president of SmartSense by Digi. “Our ongoing collaboration with Dig will help amplify the quality and safety of its products at all locations. As we continue to work together, we’ll collaborate to deliver better nutritional outcomes, focus on sustainability, and improve the dining experience of consumers seeking food options to fit their healthy lifestyles.”

Founded in 2011 in New York City, Dig prepares more than 100,000 meals weekly and harvests more than 75,000 pounds of produce from its Dig Acres farm located in upstate New York, planting crops specifically for its seasonally-driven menu. The company operates a portfolio of chef-operated restaurants.

Festival Foods automates temperature monitoring with IoT
A Wisconsin-based regional grocer is also ensuring food safety and minimizing shrink with SmarSense Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In a recent conversation with Chain Store Age, Joe Laufenberg, asset protection senior director, Festival Foods, explained how and why the retailer utilizes Bluetooth IoT sensors from SmartSense to automatically and continuously monitor the temperature of coolers, refrigerators, and chilled cases in all of its stores.

To update its temperature monitoring process and reduce strain on its workforce, Festival Foods deployed an automated temperature monitoring solution from IoT technology company SmartSense. The retailer placed SmartSense Bluetooth IoT sensors in all chilled and frozen product shelving units in all of its stores.

The Bluetooth sensors continuously take in temperature data, which is then transmitted to gateways that collect the data and send it to a centralized SmartSense database. Gateways operate with battery backup and cellular technology, so that even in the event of a power or network outage, they can still collect and transmit data in real time.

As a result, Laufenberg said that the frequency of temperature-controlled product loss at Festival Foods is down substantially since the retailer implemented the SmartSense IoT solution. In addition, headquarters staff remotely monitoring the SmartSense database can see when store-based equipment is starting to show early signs of problems, and notify store personnel to act to prevent serious issues.