Taking Action on Connected Data to Improve Food Safety

It’s a period of great change, globally, for food safety in the food retail industry. Changing consumer demands, traceability advances, and the evolving regulatory environment have made food safety across the supply chain more complex than ever.  There is also an explosion in the availability of digital data on food safety.  The challenge is how to turn millions of data points into action and improvement.

It’s a period of great change, globally, for food safety in the food retail industry. Changing consumer demands, traceability advances, and the evolving regulatory environment have made food safety across the supply chain more complex than ever.  There is also an explosion in the availability of digital data on food safety.  The challenge is how to turn millions of data points into action and improvement.

It’s a period of great change, globally, for food safety in the food retail industry. Changing consumer demands, traceability advances, and the evolving regulatory environment have made food safety across the supply chain more complex than ever.  There is also an explosion in the availability of digital data on food safety.  The challenge is how to turn millions of data points into action and improvement.

Connecting Data to Action

An instrumental part of the evolution of the industry will be connected technology, digitization of food safety data, and the Internet of Things (IoT). An interconnected, digital food safety system facilitates informed action which increases agility, flexibility and speed. This creates wide-reaching positive impact. How can we measure the efficacy of this proactive model? A variety of ways: 

• Increased compliance – Insights into daily operations at the store level and across the enterprise can improve compliance to specific sanitation and food handling practices, helping to reduce the risk of food borne illness.
• Improved monitoring – Unlocking the potential to remotely monitor daily compliance with SSOPs, send smart alerts to ensure timely completion of tasks, and identify potential issues for follow-up provides increased opportunities to prevent negative outcomes.
• More operational efficiency – Efficiency means profitability, and connected technology can demonstrably reduce waste of labor, water, and energy from inefficient cleaning and record keeping.
• Increased food quality and shopper satisfaction – Stores that are visibly cleaner and with improved appearance and shelf life of fresh foods can lead to better experiences for both seller and shopper. The ability to reduce spoilage and increase shelf life has obvious and practical benefits for inventory sell-through and overall costs.
• Optimizing food safety in real time – As a bottom line, technology can help us free up people to do what people do best: answer questions, solve problems and delight customers. With a combination of technology and service expertise, we can identify risks and proactively resolve issues before problems occur.

Introducing MARKETGUARD™365

Ecolab is excited to introduce MARKETGUARD™365, the revolutionary network of data consolidation and analysis tools that make food safety more precise and efficient. Paired with real-time service and problem resolution, the MARKETGUARD™365 system is not only a widely applicable tool for productivity, but is also an example of how connected food safety systems drive action, improvement, and growth opportunities.

Connecting the data is only the beginning. The next step is acting on the data. That is where Ecolab’s food retail dedicated field service team of food safety experts take those insights and provide focused on-site service to help customers be proactive in addressing food safety risks before they occur.

To learn more about our new innovation contact your Ecolab representative at 800.529.5458.

This post was written and contributed by:

Nicolas Granucci
VP  & General Manager Global Food Retail
Ecolab