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Many foodservice businesses have realized the importance of using technology to collect and evaluate the detailed information about the effectiveness of their Food Safety Management System (FSMS). Additionally, they are gaining more insight into what customers think about their products. Let’s take a deeper dive into the important role that data has in improving your operations.
The Many Costs of Manual Data Collection
Using manual methods of information collection in a food safety management system can mean inefficiency and inaccuracy.
With little or no way of being able to control the timing or accuracy of temperature checks conducted by employees, the risk of food products becoming spoiled and causing foodborne illness increases significantly.
Being forced to travel to one or more locations to collect manually recorded data means a great deal of time lost. In addition, manual methods leave no way to determine whether or not a cooler, refrigerator or other storage appliance is operating properly.
As well, the time it takes employees to complete checklists manually can deal a significant blow to your business’s overall efficiency.
However, when data is collected automatically and continuously, you have full visibility and critical control and—with complete accuracy—the ability to see what information is being collected and by whom.
The ability to see collected data in real time offers important insights that manual data collection simply cannot provide. These insights are then used to make vitally important decisions about and adjustments to your processes and your FSMS.
When employees use technology instead of manual methods to complete various checklists, their efficiency drastically increases, and the entire workflow is streamlined and accurate.
The Benefits of Food Safety Management Data to Customer Service
Customers are the lifeblood of your foodservice business; but without detailed information about their experience, it’s impossible to ensure their satisfaction and your brand standards.
The lack of accurate and continuous temperature data leaves you without the ability to ensure optimal freshness, which drastically increases the risk of foodborne illness. In addition, without details about popular menu items, busiest times and more - there is simply no way to fine-tune your customer’s experience.
Food safety management data can be used to ensure the protection of your guests and the overall public health of diners. Detailed, continuous information about food temperatures and processes alerts you to any malfunctioning appliances well before food safety becomes a concern.
FSMS data can be used to confirm and preserve food freshness throughout the entire supply chain from the original source to service. This vastly improves the customer experience, which increases the potential for satisfaction and minimizes the likelihood of customer complaints while maintaining brand standards.
Many food service businesses are using digitally collected data to identify purchasing patterns that manually collected data is not able to reveal. Digital collection means that data can be separated according to numerous specific categories customized to your industry needs.
Utilizing the data-driven customer service allows you to seize all opportunities to improve and personalize the customer experience.
Data-Driven Business Operations
Growth and profitability are direct results of the ability to optimize all business processes.
With FSMA data that is manually collected, you only receive intermittent snapshots that provide few clues as to how best your operations can be optimized.
With so many pieces missing from the big picture, the approach to business improvement can be driven more by assumption instead of concrete data, leading to further inaccuracies that can require more time and effort to correct later on.
Manual methods also rely on collection by humans, which can quickly become a serious issue during labor shortages. As well, manual collection may not produce reliable-enough information to prove compliance to regulatory agencies.
Digitally collected FSMA data can be stored in the cloud for immediate access and long-term usage. Business owners can extract the most valuable data and analyze it and make immediate changes. Charts, graphs, and other visual representations of data can be easily created and then sent to stakeholders, who can then make informed decisions about how to increase sales, training, line flow, ROI, and more.
The cloud storage of FSMA data also means that it can be available to managers, employees, and other authorized individuals to access and analyze for optimization of processes and detection of problems with food safety in their respective departments.
Digitally collected food safety management data doesn’t require human intervention, allowing the focus to be shifted to maximizing the productivity of the employees without adding any risk to food quality or safety.
Another advantage to having technology collect and distribute data effectively is that it can also benefit foodservice businesses for their regulatory compliance. When collected digitally, data is automatically given a timestamp, making it easy for regulatory agencies to confirm compliance.
Similarly, the ability to organize data into reports and visual representations gives businesses a way to submit complete information to regulatory agencies in a fraction of the time it would take to compile, analyze, process, and arrange data that was manually collected.
Challenges and Considerations
In order to maximize the value of data collected by a food safety management system, it’s important to overcome certain challenges.
Ensuring that your employees are thoroughly and properly trained to use FSMA technology will allow the system to be implemented far more quickly. Training will also allow for more confident employees and result in a cohesive team that fully understands the importance of food safety processes.
However, the mere mention of training automatically generates concerns about workflow interruptions and dips in productivity. This challenge can be eliminated through the choosing of a system that will generate instructions to correct actions in real time.
Technology that offers instruction to employees as they are doing their jobs ensures that no productivity is lost, and that workflow can continue without disruption.
Certain considerations will help foodservice businesses to maximize the value of data that is collected. The security and privacy of data are both vitally important considerations for any business.
With that being said, it is imperative that an FSMS data system ensures comprehensive encryption for all data exchanges. This includes secure transmission of data to and from the cloud, as well as among employees, managers, stakeholders, and regulatory agencies.
Food safety data cannot have any value without a system that is able to organize, simplify, manage, and interpret it. The right software will streamline your operations, making all employees and processes more efficient.
It will be easy to use and also have the capability to communicate information so clearly that only a glance is required to retrieve desired information, identify trends, and formulate insights.
The best way to ensure that a business maximizes the value of data its FSMS system collects is to clearly demonstrate how this can be accomplished. The most effective way to do this is to offer a live demonstration that’s been tailored to the specific needs of a business.
Data Takes Your Operations to New Heights
Utilizing manual methods to manage your foodservice business increases errors, making your business vulnerable to foodborne illness. It can vastly increase the time you spend on various tasks, eating away at your efficiency.
Manual methods can only generate FSMS data intermittently, leaving you with no way to determine how well your appliances or your business is performing or how much you are spending.
A data-driven solution can solve all of these challenges and more, but it must be one that offers data security, ease-of-use, complete customization, and instant implementation. Otherwise, it will be a drain on your budget and resources—something that no foodservice business can afford.
Features and Benefits
ComplianceMate’s digitized food safety monitoring system uses IoT technology to help foodservice businesses ensure high levels of safety and efficiency in their operations.
Our cutting-edge, wireless LoRaWAN sensors allow temperature and humidity data to be transmitted to a 10-mile radius through the concrete, heavy insulation, and stainless steel found in commercial kitchens.
These sensors offer remote 24/7 monitoring and log temperatures automatically, even during power outages. Should temperatures fluctuate outside acceptable ranges, the system sends an alert via email or text so that you can take action.
The operational checklists in our system allow safety checklists to be completed, shift notes to be documented, and allow you to track food waste, to name but a few.
All workflow checklists in the ComplianceMate system are user-friendly and fully customizable and can be easily implemented and instantly usable by all of your employees.
Compliance and completion rate data is generated in the form of real-time reports, which can be viewed and accessed with any internet-connected device. Cloud storage makes both current and historical data available.
Using our information engine, you can ensure the safety of all the food you serve and take advantage of powerful data analytics that provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of your operations.
In addition to helping you minimize the risks of foodborne illness, ComplianceMate also benefits your foodservice budget in terms of lower energy consumption.
It detects potential equipment failure well before temperatures reach unsafe ranges, which allows you to take corrective steps before food spoils and energy bills rise.
Our digital checklists allow employees to work more quickly and efficiently, reducing the time needed to learn and perform duties. Automating tasks in this way eliminates human error, as well as the additional costs it generates.
By the Numbers
The ComplianceMate system has allowed foodservice businesses to realize a minimum ROI of $4 for every dollar invested in our software.
As well, our average customer has seen 20% improvement in audit scores and an over 50% reduction in their hazard analysis-related labor costs.
Your Complete Solution
Since 2001, ComplianceMate has helped foodservice transporters, restaurants, hospitals, and all other foodservice businesses to improve food safety, efficiency, and more. Schedule a fully customized, free live demonstration at your location today.
