CostCo WHolesale
CATAPULTING A GLOBAL BRAND TO BEING AN INDUSTRY LEADER IN FOOD SAFETY
Costco first began using Thermo-Simple in 2005. And, although they initially limited their tests to three Arizona warehouse locations, in only one year Thermo-Simple had become part of the standard U.S. domestic specification for Costco warehouses.Fast forward to the present day where Thermo-Simple is in over 1,000 Costco warehouses globally, with more than 25,000 units installed. More important than volume, are the changes we helped foster within Costco as a company and the overwhelming savings it has delivered to their bottom line.
Whole Foods Market
REDUCING FOOD LOSS THROUGH EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
“When it comes to food safety, there are two elements: the human element and the equipment element. This solution eliminates both human error and equipment error – it’s easy for everyone to identify issues and know when to take action.” Rosie Cerna, Environmental Health & Safety Engineer (Whole Foods Market IP, L.P.)
Whole Food Market illustrates a classic supermarket and food service challenge – how to empower the entire store team to identify, report and solve refrigeration and freezer issues on the floor of a store. When you have hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock at risk of loss, or the potential implication of contamination and customer illness when problems are not caught, a comprehensive monitoring solution is vital. Deploying a range of products from RI was the solution for this major retail supermarket chain and, as a result, the company has seen improvements in response time to cold chain issues and dramatic reductions in consequential food loss.
MEALS ON WHEELS YOLO COUNTY
PROTECTING FOOD FOR OUR SENIORS
“We prepare over 80,000 meals every year at our Meals on Wheels facility. So, naturally, we have a walk-in refrigerator as well as a walk-in freezer in our kitchen, and those pieces of equipment are vital to the storage and rotation of food necessary in the preparation of meals for our seniors.
On occasion, we’ve had issues with that equipment not remaining at correct temperature, and even have experienced the freezer door popping open on its own during a weekend. This necessitates us throwing out food that has been compromised, thereby increasing our food costs in order to feed our clients. One thing a non-profit organization doesn’t need are extra and unplanned costs!
Since we have been using the SensorSimple sensors and Cloud Monitoring Solution, it has allowed our Kitchen Manager and myself to check on the status of these refrigeration units, and to rest easy, knowing that we will be alerted to a temperature problem in the kitchen overnight, over weekends and over holidays. The system also emails us an automatically generated report every 24 hours, and notes the hourly temperature in each unit. These reports are also stored in the cloud, so that we have a historical record, should we need it for review with maintenance technicians.
Our experience with the SensorSimple System has been excellent, and I would highly recommend it.” Christi Skibbins, Executive Director Meals on Wheels Yolo County
PET FOOD EXPRESS
SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR TEMPERATURE MONITORING
“We have been using the Thermosimple gauges in our Pet Food Express stores for about a year. The gauges make it so simple for our stores to monitor the freezer temperatures while they are focused on serving our customers. I am thrilled to be adding Sensor Simple freezer monitoring! We can see how our store freezers are performing in real time, from anywhere! We are able to react to freezer alarms immediately and protect our product! These gauges are easy to install, use and read. What another simple and effective solution!” Carol Horn Davis, Senior Manager of Construction (Pet Foods Express)
Pet Food Express has been expanding their frozen pet food selections and needed a remote and local temperature monitoring solution to allow them to react quickly and seamlessly to address any temperature issue as it arises. They are dedicated to food safety and maintaining the highest quality standards. Deploying SensorSimple and Thermo-Simple was the optimal solution for this major pet food retail chain and, as a result they experience peace of mind knowing they are both locally and remotely protected against refrigeration failures 24/7/365.
Primal Pet Foods Inc
WIFI FREEZER MONITORING DELIVERS PEACE OF MIND
Primal Petfoods had an all too common production and distribution challenge. Their very popular pet offerings – Primal Formulas, Mixes and Grinds – are made with fresh, antibiotic- and steroid-free whole muscle meat, organ meat and meaty bones with no added hormones. And their very freshness requires high grade refrigeration and freezer storage at production and distribution plants to retain the quality of the products as they arrive in retail stores.
The team at Primal was very pleased to hear about the SensorSimple solution which, as a wireless temperature measurement solution that uses existing WiFi networks, seemed to be a good fit for their needs. They were even more impressed when the installation was demonstrated to be as simple as attaching the sensor module to the wall of the freezer! Now the hourly checking process can be done from anywhere through any mobile device or desktop web interface.
“Prior to wireless monitoring of our cold storage units, I was walking into the storage freezers with a thermometer and notebook.” commented Zachary Pitt, Facility Manager for Primal Pet Foods Inc. “SensorSimple not only keeps me out of the cold, it allows me to share the trends and data with my team with just a few clicks of the mouse!”
Not only does SensorSimple automate the tedious routine checking process, it also promptly alerts the team of any unusual or exceptional conditions that may arise on site.
A&I Refrigeration
SO SIMPLE, SO EASY, SO OBVIOUS!
When I first saw the RI products I was really surprised and impressed! Something so simple, so easy to hook up, and with such an obvious visual alarm indicator is a winner when it comes to saving grocers and restaurant managers from product loss,” commented Ray Fontanilla, owner of A&I Refrigeration in Hawaii.
Rays’ customers have high standards when it comes to the installation of food service temperature monitoring equipment. Legacy analog thermometer equipment is outdated when it comes to accurate measurement and high integrity record keeping. For an innovative approach that fills these gaps, Ray recommends installing or retrofitting the Thermo-Simple or SensorSimple solution from the team at RI. They are simply technically superior offerings for monitoring, record keeping and alerting, yet easy to install and set up for companies for companies like Ray’s. And they certainly don’t break the bank.
Ray and his team have installed RI’s solutions more times than they can count, with customers all over the Big Island, Kauai, Maui and Oahu. One of the most memorable reactions from clients was in the ice cream trade. They were very enthusiastic about the protection offered to the ice cream freezers – which must be some kind of critical economic foundation in a place like Hawaii. “The devices were so clearly displaying a fault condition that store personnel and even customers were reporting the problem. End result – we were able to save the stock from a complete meltdown!”
