Each functional area of the food industry has been significantly getting better with the integration of IoT. For an instance, IoT facilitates food companies to ensure superior levels of traceability, food safety and, therefore accountability all through the farm-to-plate supplies chain operations. Moreover, the IoT network in the food supply chain greatly aids to trim down waste, costs, and risks as well, in all stages of the procedure.
Improved Food Safety
The 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), put into place by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, has acted as a catalyst for global change in the food industry. A major overhaul of the US food safety regulations, this law makes the FDA’s role more proactive: focusing on food safety through prevention instead of just reacting to an food contamination issue after it arises.
As a result, the F&B industry is paying more attention to food safety. In this context, food and beverage solutions enabled by IoT help companies in remaining flexible while proving the best top of the line products and complying with FSMA regulations:
- Different kind of monitoring sensors, including temperature and humidity sensors are being used to monitor necessary production state, shipping time, and to monitor temperature in containers to ensure that food products are stored in a suitable environment.
- The utilization of real-time temperature tracking sensors allows organizations to closely monitor food safety data points, assuring active cold chain management.
- This triggers staff to perform and verify mandatory food safety inspections when data gathered from sensors advice potential issues or violations.
- Currently, in the packaging industry, food packaging has been tagged with sensors and linked to a supply-chain-wide network. It helps investigators with the trace-and-track process and significantly reduces the time and effort involved in it.
Logistics
With the help of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) transmitters and GPS systems, the distribution chain can be effectually monitored all along the whole storage and shipping course at the sales points or stores. This also enables companies to be acquainted with the preferences of customers, better reply to market requirements and decrease surpluses. The advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking provides supreme visibility into the food supply chain, helps automate delivery and shipping processes and effectively monitors and controls temperature.
Production and Storage
Sensors can significantly help to perk up quality control, products tracking, workers’ activities, and taking advantage of real-time analysis for production. Sensors persistently inspect the colour and specks throughout flour production, which helps to immediately rectify any inaccuracy. Moreover, sensors gauge the moisture content along with protein or cash content and allow real-time optimization of the production procedure.
Wastage Reduction
As per the report of food and agriculture organization of United Nations, nearly one-third of human food production is wasted globally each year. This not only results in money loss but also tend to damage our surroundings by growing carbon gas in the atmosphere. IoT technology makes it possible to effortlessly monitor the state of all food products and send the real-time information to the assigned individual, which decreases food wastage.
