Zebra Technologies Corporation, an Internet of Things (IoT) technologies developer, and Atmel Corporation, a microcontroller (MCU) and touch technology solutions company, have announced a smart refrigeration IoT reference design, which they demonstrated at NRF 2016 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.
Consumer demand for fresher, safer food and medication, in addition to mandates from the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is driving retailers to invest in automatic, non-invasive temperature monitoring of refrigeration units. According to the CDC, 48 million Americans get sick each year from foodborne diseases.
“Managing the quality and inventory of perishable goods—a significant way to reduce costs—has been one of the biggest challenges in the retail industry for decades,” said Pierre Roux, director, Wireless Microcontrollers, Atmel Corporation. “The new smart refrigeration reference design developed by Zebra Technologies is managed through a secure wireless connection to the end point, allowing retailers to easily add real-time temperature monitoring.”
Zebra's Zatar, an ARM mbed-enabled IoT Cloud Service, offers connectivity with any device for both reference designs and commercial-scale solutions. For this Smart Refrigeration IoT Solution Reference Design, the company has provided an easy-to-deploy, cloud-based temperature monitoring solution using wireless sensors, mesh networking technologies and the Zatar IoT Cloud Service. It uses sensors paired to Atmel SMART 802.15.4 solutions and mesh communications to allow retailers, manufacturers and logistics companies to quickly deploy automatic, commercial-class temperature monitoring in their stores and facilities from trusted vendors.
“Managing and recording the temperature of fast-moving, perishable goods is increasingly necessary for a superior, safer customer experience,” said Thomas Kurian, senior director, New Growth Platforms, Zebra Technologies. “Bringing together Atmel's low-power, mesh technologies with Zatar, our IoT Cloud Service, helps retailers eliminate the cost and inaccuracy of manual recordings and meet compliance requirements.”
This is far from the only IoT-enabled solution to FSMA-related issues, but these connected systems are clearly the best way to get FSMA-compliant while increasing operational efficiency.
Edited by
Kyle Piscioniere
