Farm to Freezer, Real-Time Analytics Cut Food Waste

By Insight.Tech.
​Full Article Here
​Cecilia Flores, Co-Founder and Ralph Aceves, VP of Sales

What if food producers could track their products at every step from the farm to the cold case? More meat and produce would reach the retailer fresh and ready for market. It could also help save the more than 1.2 billion tons of food that due to spoilage never reaches the consumer annually. Innovative cold-chain monitoring solutions can address these challenges.

Webee has developed a Cold-Chain Monitoring solution that simplifies inspection of food across the supply chain. It collects, analyzes, and transmits data, including temperature, humidity, and location in real time, enabling users to make immediate decisions.

Automating processes such as setting equipment temperature ranges and submitting audit records eliminates the potential of human error. And this simplifies compliance with new federal regulations, which require more critical observation for product temperature audit trails.
“Traditional cold-chain monitoring solutions are out-of-date and require a lot of labor,” said Cecilia Flores, webee Co-Founder. “Our customers want to provide high-quality food and reduce waste. They don’t want to get bogged down with raw information.”

The solution includes an on-premise gateway powered by Intel® technology. Sensors communicate with the gateway via Wi-Fi, ZigBee, or other wireless protocols. Data is backhauled to the cloud over 4G-LTE, 3G, 2G cellular, Ethernet, and LoRa long-range wireless.
The LoRa low-power communication protocol can transmit up to 10 miles line of sight. It extends three miles through buildings, enabling long-range asset management. If there’s a loss in connectivity, webee’s edge sensors continue to collect and send data to the gateway. Once connectivity is reestablished, data is sent in batches to the cloud.

Efficiency is critical. “Default settings on a battery-powered sensor may record and send a temperature reading every 30 seconds, frequently waking the sensor,” said Aceves. “Our solution allows a longer battery life. Users can change the temperature read-and-send from, say, once per minute to every 10 minutes.”

Read more 

---