Food Safety Temperature Monitoring

Food Safety Temperature Monitoring

If you’re looking for a cloud-based wireless food safety temperature monitoring system that helps your team eliminate manual logging, improve compliance readiness and protect all your temperature sensitive assets, you’ve arrived at the right place. 

Some of the finest names in healthcare, research and food service/distribution, including Indiana University Health, Ohio University Innovation Center and Nomi Health (as well as University of Michigan Health System and Stanford University) rely on Sonicu to provide robust continuous temperature monitoring for their cold and frozen environments. 

These respected healthcare and research brands turn to Sonicu for three primary reasons: 

• Operational Efficiency: Virtually eliminate the need for tedious and costly manual logging 
• Compliance Automation: Respond to virtually any regulatory audit or inspection in a few clicks with our reports section
• Asset Protection: Detect and respond to any temperature excursion that can threaten virtually anything perishable: food, drugs, vaccines, research, etc. 

When you combine these three significant feature benefits, our clients average about $80,000 of savings for every 100 hospital beds. 

At research or university locations without beds, it’s not hard to imagine the time savings alone by simply not having staff manually record temperatures several times per day. 

Our customers stay with us thanks to our American-based customer support that is never more than a phone call away. 

While our technology is intuitive and powerful, we know it’s only as strong as the people who stand behind it. 

In the food service industry, staying out of the temperature danger zone is vital.

The danger zone is the range of temperatures that food transporters and producers must keep meat, dairy, and other products out of to ensure that bacteria cannot grow. 

Different foods require different holding or storage temperatures. For example, a hot food holding temperature chart can inform you at what temperature you need to keep specific cooked foods, while another chart might be better for knowing the temperature cold food should be held. 

What temperature the foods you handle need to be at can be determined with a chart, but ensuring the foods stay at that temperature requires a tool for food safety temperature monitoring.

Food service workers that prepare food for consumption need to know what is the minimum internal cooking temperature for poultry and what the minimum internal cooking temperature for seafood as well as other meats.

You can learn more about how our software helps compliance professionals in these case studies: 

Discount Drug Mart: Power Outage Protection + Compliance Automation

Problem: Transitioning from manual temperature logs and reactive power outage management

Solution: Adopting Sonicu's advanced system for seamless temperature monitoring and real-time power outage alerts across its 77 locations.

Hendricks Health: From Nutrition to the OR

Problem: The need to improve compliance and safety across various departments, starting from nutrition to the operating rooms.

Solution: Upgraded monitoring systems to enhance patient safety and streamline compliance across multiple facilities, including local YMCA rehabilitation facilities.

IU Health: Enterprise Monitoring

Problem: Challenges of using a locally based server and multiple monitoring solutions across departments.

Solution: Transitioned to a single, cloud-based solution with Sonicu to enhance monitoring capabilities across more than a dozen locations and the IU School of Medicine.

To work in the industry, food service professionals may need to be certified in food safety. 

Workers can only receive this certification if they pass a knowledge test. 

Among the many questions, there may be questions on temperatures, such as the above poultry and seafood questions and the following question: 

pork chops must reach which minimum internal cooking temperature for 15 seconds? 

Another question might be: 

what temperature should hot food be served? 

Celsius temperatures will be different than Fahrenheit temperatures, and it is important to know both.

Temperatures are one of the most important parts of food safety, which is why food handlers need to know the correct temperatures for different foods. 

But workers also need to be able to keep temperatures stable. Why is a minimum internal temperature important while cooking? Because bacteria can rapidly grow in temperatures between 40℉ and 140℉. 

This is the same reason why keeping cold food below that danger zone is vital. Once the food is cold or hot enough to escape the danger zone, it must be kept there. 

Food producers can use a food safety temperature monitoring system, such as Sonicu’s, to ensure their food stays at the proper temperatures.

Food Temperature Monitoring

Food temperature monitoring is necessary for the food service industry. 

Temperatures must be kept consistent to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria in many foods, including meat, dairy, and more. 

The best way to ensure temperatures are kept stable is to use food temperature monitoring systems. These systems are important for restaurants and any organization that handles food, such as cold chain transportation. 

In the latter case, cold chain temperature monitoring devices should be implemented for every stage of the chain. If one truck or location is not temperature controlled, the food will be spoiled and could cause illnesses.

Food safety temperature monitoring must be performed constantly. 

This means that periodically checking the temperature of refrigerated, frozen, or cooked food will not pass safety standards. Instead, restaurants and other food-based organizations should consider an industrial wireless temperature monitoring system. 

This case study speaks to Sonicu’s experience serving the food industry: 

Piazza Produce

Problem: Costly and labor intensive temperature monitoring platform

Solution: More affordable and simple solution for operations and safety team 

These systems are sensors installed in a location that needs to be monitored and connected to another device via wireless means, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular networks. 

A wireless temperature monitoring system like the one from Sonicu can automatically and consistently monitor temperatures and wirelessly send the data to an easy-to-use mobile app to know when there are any temperature changes.

Food Service Temperature Monitoring System

One area in addition to restaurants where food safety temperature monitoring is vital is in vehicles used for transporting food products. 

Refrigeration trucks must be kept at a certain temperature throughout the entire journey. The best way to ensure the temperature in these trucks stays at a safe level is to utilize a vehicle temperature monitoring system like Sonicu’s. 

The Sonicu system can leverage GPS technology to help with tracking shipments as well. 

On the other end of the temperature spectrum, certain foods must be kept hot. 

What temperature should hot foods be kept at? 

Anything above 135℉ is considered safe. This also answers the question: at what temperature must the hot food on display be held? 

As with cold temperature monitoring in refrigeration trucks, food producers must monitor hot food to ensure it stays at a safe temperature.

An ideal food service temperature monitoring system can monitor the temperature of foods in all environments, meet regulatory requirements, and store data in a secure platform. 

Rather than only measuring temperature, a robust system should also measure humidity. For instance, in walk-in coolers or freezers, humidity can damage the mechanics and result in a higher electricity bill. 

Temperature and humidity monitoring systems can alert you when one or the other reaches an unsafe level so that you can address the issue promptly.

You can learn more about how our software helps compliance professionals in these case studies: 

Cryopoint: Mission-Critical Monitoring

Problem: Cryopoint faced calibration challenges with their legacy monitoring system and issues with a server-based system, putting critical samples at risk.

Solution: Transitioned to Sonicu's SoniCloud and its mobile-first solution, enhancing reliability in monitoring and easing operations.

Ohio University Innovation Center

Problem: Tech and tech-enabled startups at the Innovation Center needed reliable support systems for temperature and environmental monitoring due to the requirements of grant-funded projects.

Solution: Implement Sonicu for comprehensive monitoring of temperature, ambient humidity, and air pressure differential, ensuring necessary protection and compliance.

Hancock Regional Health: Enterprise Monitoring from Sound to Environmental

Problem: Disparate monitoring systems were taxing the staff with many manual processes, leading to inefficiencies and reduced asset protection.

Solution: CEO Steve Long initiated the adoption of a consolidated monitoring program for temperature, environmental, and sound, which automated compliance and reduced manual logging.

HACCP Temperature Monitoring System

Food safety temperature monitoring is one of the most important parts of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points). 

HACCP is a management system for analyzing and controlling hazards in food processing. 

When a food processing business has HACCP plans, consumers and regulatory groups can be sure that the organization complies with food safety regulations. 

A HACCP temperature monitoring system must be in place so that food processing organizations can keep food at the temperatures outlined in HACCP standard operating procedures and stay compliant with regulations. 

This may require multiple temperature monitoring systems with sensors for several areas, including refrigerators, freezers, and hot food storage.

With many aspects of food processing requiring specific temperature-controlled storage, it is important to be able to keep track of each area. 

However, some food temperature monitoring systems may not be able to measure multiple different temperatures. 

A refrigeration temperature monitoring system may be helpful for refrigerators, but if that system cannot monitor hot temperatures, you will need a completely separate system for hot food storage. 

The same is true for humidity monitoring. 

Temperature and humidity monitoring systems may not always be the same, but the best ones will have sensors for both. 

E Control System’s Intellisensor can monitor both, but the system only runs on Wi-Fi or the Zigbee standard. 

In contrast, Sonicu’s system monitors temperature and humidity and can relay the data to the secure cloud-based platform via Bluetooth, cellular networks, and Wi-Fi.

Restaurant Temperature Monitoring

In restaurants, food safety temperature monitoring must be done at several points of the food journey. Among the first steps that restaurant managers need to take is to verify the stability of the temperature in any refrigerated or frozen food that is transported to the restaurant. 

This means that the restaurant must verify not only the temperature of the food products upon arrival but also ensure that they remained at that temperature while in the truck. 

For this purpose, a refrigerated truck temperature monitoring system, like Sonicu’s, that consistently tracks the temperature and uploads the data to a secure platform will make this task easy. 

Once the products have been assessed and declared safe, the restaurant must monitor the temperature of cold or hot food so that it stays consistent. 

Restaurant temperature monitoring can be efficiently performed with a comprehensive system like the monitoring kits from Sonicu. 

Food Serving Temperature Chart

Once food products have been stored properly at a restaurant, certain products, such as meat, must be cooked to the proper internal temperature and stay hot until served to the customers. Different meats must be cooked to different temperatures, but all should be above the food temperature danger zone of between 40℉ and 140℉. 

It is easy to find a meat temperature chart online that outlines the safe meat temperatures for cooking, and many charts will be fairly simple.

For instance, when it comes to a chicken temperature chart, the safe temperature is 165℉ regardless of the part of the poultry being cooked. 

If cooks do not wish to memorize the different temperatures by asking questions such as “what food should be cooked to a temperature of __ celsius,” it is recommended to find a printable food temperature chart such as the one from FoodSafety.gov.

After the food has been cooked properly, it must be kept at a safe temperature until serving. As with the safe cooking temperatures charts, a food serving temperature chart can be helpful in restaurants. 

These charts make it easy to answer the question: what temperature should hot food be served? Keeping food hot before serving requires a temperature monitoring sensor, like Sonicu’s, to ensure the temperature does not fall below the safe range.

Temperature Control Monitoring System

When it comes to food safety, temperature monitoring is of utmost importance. 

In restaurants and other establishments, ensuring cold food stays cold can be easier with a temperature monitoring system for refrigerator temperatures and a freezer temperature monitoring system for temperatures below freezing. 

In addition, with the risk of humidity causing issues in walk-in coolers, it is best to have a temperature and humidity monitoring system.

Before purchasing a system, it is crucial to understand the difference between a temperature control monitoring system and a sensor system. 

Temperature control systems can automatically monitor and adjust the temperature in an area, while a sensor-based system monitors the temperature and alerts you about changes. 

Control systems are very expensive and unnecessary if you already have a thermostat. 

On the other hand, a remote temperature monitoring system can warn you of unsafe temperatures so that you can adjust the thermostat as necessary. 

Sonicu’s wireless temperature monitoring system can be installed anywhere from freezers to trucks. It will automatically alert the user to temperature changes, whether they are monitoring temperatures for restaurants, food processing establishments, or transportation companies so that they can stay compliant with food safety regulations.