Food Warehousing 101: Why You Need Environment Monitoring

Food Warehousing needs to be regulated at all times to keep products in safe conditions for consumption. If the environment factors in a warehouse become too extreme, food and beverages can be compromised which can lead to making consumers very sick. It is a great decision for warehouses, especially those containing sensitive materials such as food, to invest in environment monitoring. Environment monitoring allows warehouses to stay aware of the conditions of environmental factors. For example, if water is detected in a food warehouse, environment monitoring provides you that information so you can step in and handle the situation before it becomes serious water damage.

Environment monitoring with Room Alert takes the safety and urgency of food warehousing a step further by allowing users to receive immediate notifications when changes in the environment occur. 

It is crucial for certain foods and drinks to stay at specific temperatures, especially perishable foods as the growth rate of potentially harmful bacteria slows down drastically below specific temperatures. The type of food or drink product will determine the storage temperature required:

• Frozen food must be stored at a minimum of 0° F
• Dry food must be stored between 50° and 70° F
• Refrigerator chilled food must be stored between 34° to 39° F

Room Alert can help by monitoring the correct chilled temperatures and by alerting you if your food warehouse loses power for extended periods which allows you to save any foods or drinks that can be negatively impacted through loss of refrigeration.

Food can also be contaminated through mold growth. Room Alert will track and alert users of environmental conditions that contribute to mold and fungus growth so it can be contained and solved before it becomes a disaster. Smoke damage, high temperatures and high humidity can also quickly ruin food products. Humidity levels in dry storage areas should not exceed 15%. Room Alert will immediately notify you if your warehouse exceeds 15% humidity.

It is recommended that environment conditions, especially for food grade warehouses, should be checked hourly. To protect your warehouse during downtime, you can access your RoomAlert.com from anywhere at any time to check on the conditions of your warehouse. Room Alert also offers reporting features so you can organize data about your food warehouse over a period of time. 

You can create reports in RoomAlert.com by selecting sensors from one or more Room Alert devices, choosing a date range, choosing colors and titling your report. If your organization’s Room Alert Account is at the Professional level or higher, you may create custom overlays to display in your reports. Report overlays allow you to easily check if the readings from all graphed sensors are within your desired range. You can also favorite reports, create public links, export the report as a PDF and CSV file.

Food warehouses must develop a written plan for how the facility would handle any problem that could compromise food safety. This guideline is designed as a prevention plan that can be the basis of training employees on food safety procedures. This plan then must be available for the FDA to review upon request. Considering that all food warehouses require a prevention plan, it makes perfect sense to protect your warehouse with a prevention product that is designed to reduce all environment forms of unpredictability that could cause costly damage.

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is defined by the FDA as a “management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.” RoomAlert.com is secure and compliant with food safety regulations because Room Alert sensor data can’t be edited in any way since it is securely stored on our servers. When you check your Room Alert portal from any internet-accessible device at any time, users are always looking at the most secure, accurate and up to date data possible.

Room Alert’s monitoring and alerting technology ensures the high
reliability and long-term stability of the clients’ product while in storage.
The ability to report the Temperature/Humidity ranges during the products’ time in storage is of immense benefit to the client as a precursor to the commencement of the production process. Great product to make someone’s life easier!

-Jim Warde, Operations Manager for Titan Solutions

Room Alert is a useful and trustworthy tool to monitor environmental conditions and ensure the food and beverages in your warehouse are safe and sound at all times. You are always up to date and in the safest hands possible with Room Alert protecting your storage facilities.

Contact us

If you have any questions or want additional information on Room Alert and how it can protect your food warehousing against costly environmental damage such as water leaks and high temperatures, please visit our YouTube Channel or visit our Contact page for a free consultation with one of our dedicated Product Specialists today!