Data Logging Helps Vending To Stay Reliable
Gemini Data Loggers provides robust data loggers that can be located within the vending machine, constantly monitoring the temperature of the equipment and stock inside.
The most important thing to any business in the vending industry is the safety of the food that they sell. Food Safety Regulations are naturally extremely specific and precise, and demonstrating the validity of food storage is vital to both manufacturers and suppliers to vending machines, as both are held accountable to the local Environmental Health Department.
For the vending industry, this is an extremely sensitive issue as the reliability of the machinery storing the food is the key to how long the food stays fresh. A fault in electricity, energy saving initiatives or intrusion from other members of staff can all be to blame for a consignment deteriorating, but it is important for both suppliers and manufacturers to be accountable for their role in the process and to be able to discover the cause of the problem.
To maintain the quality of the stock being sold, it is also important to ensure that the food has been stored in the correct conditions throughout, and any potential fault which may have altered that quality can be traced back to its origins. The Temperature Control Regulations require chilled food to be kept at less than 8°C for the whole of its shelf life and it is important to be able to substantiate this if necessary for environmental health officers or clients. However, where vending machines are located, they are only visited periodically for maintenance and restocking and if something has gone wrong in between, how is the source of the problem to be found?
Gemini Data Loggers, producers of Tinytag temperature loggers has the solution to this problem, by providing robust data loggers that can be located within the vending machine, constantly monitoring the temperature of the equipment and stock inside.
Tinytags offer portability which has two advantages:
- The same device can be used to check a number of machines
- The loggers can remain with delivery from the moment it arrives onsite to its point of sale, so that the temperature experience of the food can be checked at all stages to ensure it complies with the regulations.
In today’s society, where energy efficiency is becoming more of an issue to organisations, constantly ensuring that their staff canteen vending machine is always kept on is not viewed as essential. Timed switches, or switching off all power to the building at night manually for example, can often occur to save energy, but this will affect the quality of the food and drink stored within the vending machine. Tinytag Data Loggers will be able to monitor if this occurs as they are self-contained and battery-powered, so when the information is downloaded onto a computer at a later date, rises or falls in temperature will be easily identifiable, and can be attributed to specific times of the day.
It is also possible to set a maximum and minimum temperature alarm on the system, so any fluctuations in temperature can be alerted to staff tasked with looking after the machines who can react quickly without risk of ruining the contents.
The data loggers are particularly useful for quality control and where legal problems due to health and safety arise. The Tinytag Explorer software can easily convert the data into graphs and tables, which can identify when the machine experienced problems, so manufacturers and suppliers can protect themselves in particularly difficult situations more than ever before.
