Automation Provides Back-of-House Solutions
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Advanced systems help operators achieve goals in food safety, menu management and more.
Automation in Food Safety
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Automation has become a key ingredient in the recipe for success in the foodservice industry, a trend that has been accelerated by the pandemic.
Food safety will always be an overriding concern for the foodservice industry, and it will only become more challenging as restaurants continue to evolve their operations in a post-pandemic environment.
Operators will continue to face pressures on their labor costs, forcing them to find more efficient ways of doing business. Balancing those demands against the training and procedures necessary to protect against outbreaks of food-borne illness will perhaps be the top priority for the restaurant industry in the years ahead.
These challenges come even as ongoing research by the Food and Drug Administration finds that restaurants are a key source of food-borne illness. In 2018 the FDA released preliminary results from an in-depth, decade-long study of food safety in the restaurant industry that is scheduled to continue through 2023.
“There remains a need to gain better control over improper holding/time and temperature and poor personal hygiene,” the report concludes.
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Advantages of Back-of-House Automation:
Everything from inventory management to scheduling, payroll, taxes and bill reconciliation will be more automated in the restaurant of the future.
— NRA Restaurant Industry 2030 report
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Food safety will always be an overriding concern for the foodservice industry, and it will only become more challenging as restaurants continue to evolve their operations in a post-pandemic environment.
Major Risk Factors
FDA guidelines set the minimum storage temperature for hot foods stored on steam tables or other areas at 135 degrees Fahrenheit, while cold foods should be kept at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. The harmful bacteria that can cause illness tend to thrive in the “danger zone” between those two thresholds.
FDA Temperature Guidelines
Any perishable foods being heated or cooled should spend as little time as possible in the danger zone to minimize the opportunities for bacteria to grow. Federal guidelines call for cooked foods that are placed in storage to be cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in two hours or less, and then from 70 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit in four hours or less.
Technologies such as the advanced labeling and temperature monitoring solutions from DayMark® can help operators maintain high safety standards.
“Food safety is critical when operating a restaurant, and cutting-edge technology is the smart solution to operating more efficiently,” says Jill Carte, director of product development, DayMark Safety Systems. “In order to meet the market demand for more automation, we have developed several products designed to help our customers run their business better, safer and more efficiently.”
DayMark’s customizable Temp Monitoring and Food Checks Solution, powered by JRI, offers operators a reliable, easy-to-use tool that saves time and money by eliminating the need for manual refrigerator and freezer temperature monitoring, food-check monitoring, hand-recorded logs and paper audits.
“This provides for more reliable results and the increased flexibility that larger footprint operations need,” she says.
In addition, these systems can also be used to monitor foods being prepared or already prepared foods such as those on a buffet, says Carte.
“Staff will no longer need to take the temperature of each individual dish to ensure health and safety standards are being met,” she says. “It can all be done through the remote system.”
Data from the temp monitoring system is backed up to the cloud so that information is secure and accessible at any time from multiple levels in the organization. The solution is accessible in the kitchen via DayMark’s MenuPilot® platform, at the corporate level via the MenuCommand® portal or as a standalone product.
Before automation, most restaurants assigned someone to manually write and track temperatures multiple times per shift or day.
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— Jill Carte, director of product development, DayMark Safety Systems
Among the benefits offered by these platforms are enhanced cross-location communication, real-time menu and regulation updates, and company-wide learning that is simplified and consistent.
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— Jill Carte, director of product development, DayMark Safety Systems
DayMark® has partnered with Nutritics to offer the Nutritics Insight solution, which gives operators a centralized analysis platform that can analyze more than 60 individual nutrients including calories, sugar, salt, vitamins and glycemic index.
Its database includes more than 125,000 data points and is continually expanding as DayMark adds user-requested foods and supplements to its proprietary, nutrition analysis program. Nutritics performs analysis in seconds and remembers your information to make it even easier to assess dishes and recipes.
It also allows restaurants to provide customers in the front-of-house with a searchable, digital menu of recipes, enabling them to make purchasing decisions based on allergens, calorie content and price.
Automation in Menu Management and Training
The primary components of the
FDA’s menu-labeling requirements
Restaurants have invested heavily in off-premises services during the past year, including adding digital ordering technologies, offering curbside pickup, bolstering their drive-thru operations and forming new partnerships with third-party delivery companies.
“The increasing demand for off-premises meals is transforming the restaurant industry and operators will need to find ways to tap into this new revenue channel,” the NRA finds in its Restaurant Industry 2030 report. “Delivery orders are booming, and business models are shifting fast to find ways to serve that customer base.”
Research from Second Measure shows that sales for meal-delivery services more than doubled in March of 2021—an increase of 116%—compared with sales levels in March 2020. In March 2021, 47% of U.S. consumers said they had ever ordered from one of the delivery services included in the firm’s analysis, up from 38% a year ago.
Automation in Off-Premises Labeling
Adding Delivery
Additional features allow managers to control which items are eligible for receiving, view receiving data, compare vendor performances, and maintain vendor contact information, among other features, via the MenuCommand® web portal.
“The accumulated data can be easily monitored by all levels within the corporate system for review of inconsistencies, transaction issues or nonconformance,” says Carte.
The Task Management and Receiving modules are offered exclusively through DayMark’s MenuCommand kitchen automation platform.
Automation in Inventory and Task Management
Automation is clearly gaining traction in the foodservice industry, providing restaurant operators with efficiencies throughout their back-of-house operations.
Tying It All Together
Increased productivity
Time savings
Accurate record keeping
Data analysis
Menu optimization
Inventory optimization
Improved customer service
Automation will create opportunities for human workers using the innate human skills that machines have the most difficulty replicating: logical thinking and problem solving, social and emotional capabilities, providing expertise, coaching and developing others, and creativity.
The potential for automation in hotels and foodservice is among the highest of all occupations, the report finds, with 73% of activities capable of being done by machines.
“As machines take on ever more of the predictable activities of the workday, these skills will be at a premium,” the report states. “Automation could make us all more human.”
The research found that the two most commonly occurring risk factors where restaurants were not in compliance with food-safety guidelines were:
Improper holding/time and temperature
quick-service restaurants
full-service restaurants
quick-service restaurants
full-service restaurants
Poor personal hygiene
“Automated systems eliminate the need for staff to manually check temperatures and is an accurate and reliable way to make sure all foods are stored and cooked correctly,” says Debbie Leifer, category manager of food safety tech, DayMark Safety Systems.
LoRa (short for Long Range) technology, which allows data to be transmitted across long distances with low power consumption, is seen as having key implications for the future of the Internet of Things (IoT), but it also has important commercial and industrial uses.
It gives the DayMark temp monitoring system the ability to customize its frequency in order to best send messaging and avoid obstacles, Leifer explains.
Automation will create opportunities for human workers using the innate human skills that machines have the most difficulty replicating: logical thinking and problem solving, social and emotional capabilities, providing expertise, coaching and developing others, and creativity.
The potential for automation in hotels and foodservice is among the highest of all occupations, the report finds, with 73% of activities capable of being done by machines.
“As machines take on ever more of the predictable activities of the workday, these skills will be at a premium,” the report states. “Automation could make us all more human.”
“Technology will automate traditional tasks,” the report concludes. “Everything from inventory management to scheduling, payroll, taxes and bill reconciliation will be more automated in the restaurant of the future.”
A McKinsey Global Institute report on the role of automation in business concludes that nearly half of the activities currently carried out by employees in the workplace could be automated.
“Automation of activities can enable businesses to improve performance, by reducing errors and improving quality and speed, and in some cases achieving outcomes that go beyond human capabilities,” the report states. “Automation also contributes to productivity, as it has done historically.”
Restaurants have invested heavily in customer-facing technologies such as digital ordering and AI-driven loyalty programs. But opportunities remain for back-of-house investments in solutions that drive efficiencies through automation.
In addition to robotics, which have long been touted as one potential use of automation in the kitchen, other technologies can be used help operators enhance food safety, track inventory and manage tasks. These technologies reduce the potential for human error and free up employees to focus on serving customers, among other benefits.
In its recent “Restaurant Industry 2030” report, the National Restaurant Association predicts that by 2030, technology will be more effectively used to control costs and enhance management efficiency, while the number of employees per restaurant declines amid rising cost pressures.
Restaurant operators in every segment of the industry were more likely to add 3rd-party delivery rather than set up an in-house delivery service, according to the NRA 2021 State of the Industry Report.
Percent of operators who say they added delivery since last March:
50
40
30
20
10
0
Fine-dining
Casual-dining
Quick-service
Fast-casual
Coffee & snack
Family-dining
Automation in Food Safety Resources
Poor personal hygiene
Improper food holding/time and temperature
Contaminated equipment/protection
from contamination
Inadequate cooking
Food obtained from unsafe sources
Having required written nutrition information available on the premises of the chain restaurant or similar retail food establishment upon request.
Including the succinct statement concerning suggested daily caloric intake and statement of availability for written nutrition information on menus and menu boards.
Disclosing calorie information on signs adjacent to foods on display and self-service foods that are standard menu items.
Posting calorie information on menus and menu boards for all standard menu items.
Multi-unit operators need to ensure that recipe and ingredient information is shared across all locations quickly, accurately and consistently.
Rather than relying on legacy loose-leaf binders for recipes, today’s restaurants can share information electronically with the push of button.
Culinary research and development teams also need ready access to ingredient information in order to be able to develop new menu items quickly and efficiently. Many restaurants cut back on their menu offerings in 2020 to focus on core items that could be easily produced for takeout and delivery with a minimal staff. That may be changing in the year ahead, however, as operators seek to generate excitement and drive traffic back into their dining rooms.
Meanwhile, the ongoing labor challenges that restaurants face will only exacerbate the need for training materials that help ensure that unit-level workers are following correct procedures when preparing items.
Technology is playing an increasing role in areas that help ensure consistency of execution across the enterprise. These areas include menu labeling and recipe management and training.
DayMark's Partnership with Nutritics
The system eliminates the need for time-consuming file conversions, recipe card file reformatting or large storage requirements, Carte says.
“Our customers can upload video and recipe data at a central location, and automatically share it with all connected locations,” she says. “It’s simple to use.”
Of particular value is the easy menu update feature of MenuCommand®, with updates securely and efficiently pulled in via the cloud to the MenuPilot® app at the store level, Carte explains. This includes real-time changes that can be communicated to staff at all locations via a sync operation in the app.
The NRA Restaurant Industry 2030 report highlights the growing need for ingredient transparency as more and more consumers adopt specific dietary regimens, and particularly as consumers become more aware of allergens and other ingredients that may cause them to suffer adverse reactions.
“Effective management of food allergens will grow in importance as consumers expect documentation of food preparation, ingredients and practices,” the report states.
The more advanced systems now provide consumers with ample information about the food products they select, says Carte of DayMark.
“Cloud-based systems, such as Nutritics, can be used on virtually any computer or mobile system with an internet connection,” she says. “This allows users to collaborate on recipes and share with other users, within—and outside of—an organization. These features improve kitchen efficiency, reduce waste and standardize recipe sizes among chefs at multiple locations.”
Benefits of the Task Management and Receiving Module from DayMark
Keep records of driver and employee COVID-19 risks.
Monitor and document tasks performed.
Determine recall protocols.
Track vendor and staff performances.
Centralize access at all levels of the organization.
This rise in the use of third-party delivery services has introduced some new challenges for restaurant operators, however. Among them is the need to ensure customers of the integrity of their orders.
TamperSeal labels from DayMark® feature security slits that cause the labels to lose their integrity if someone attempts to open the container, providing an indication to consumers that the food may have been tampered with. With an aggressive adhesive that sticks to most packaging materials safely and securely, the labels are available with custom branding and in an assortment of shapes and sizes that are ideal for all types of food and drink packaging.
“This visual indication delivers peace of mind to delivery customers who are reassured that the food they have ordered from their favorite food-service establishment is safe to eat,” says Leifer, of DayMark Safety Systems.
March 2020
Meal Delivery Services
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4
Turn off
unused ports
Unauthorized users can easily plug into unused and legacy ports or leverage unnecessary protocols to hack into systems, which is why disabling them is a good practice.
Turn off
unused ports
+
3
Change default passwords
Traditionally, default passwords have been easy to guess, and hackers often crack them in minutes.
Change default passwords
+
2
Update
firmware
Keeping software up to date is essential to eliminating vulnerabilities that hackers are adept at exploiting.
Update firmware
+
1
Designate print security staffer
This gives ownership to an individual who is accountable for enforcing print security policies.
Designate a staffer to manage print security.
Advanced technologies from DayMark offer operators automated systems that can be used in several areas:
To enhance food safety by monitoring temperatures automatically using advanced LoRa technology.
Enhance food safety
To automate task management and inventory receiving.
Task Management
To automate menu management and training.
Menu Management
To automate labeling activities throughout the enterprise.
Label Activities
Automation can also be used to streamline back-of-house processes such as receiving and task management, freeing up managers to focus on providing a good experience for customers.
Employees can also use the app to exchange tasks with each other and report incomplete tasks to managers. Managers can view task updates and through a dashboard, which allows them to compare staff performance and maintain employee information, among other tools.
Processes that at one time required the use of Excel spreadsheets or paper record-keeping can now be streamlined through these user-friendly applications.
“Investing in this type of technology is something that all food businesses could benefit from,” says Carte of DayMark Safety Systems. “Automated checklists and digitized task management, preventative maintenance, and other routine tasks can greatly improve a kitchen’s workflow.”
The Task Management module also allows operators to upload videos or documents to assist in training—a key feature in an environment in which employee turnover is expected to remain a challenge, and as operators incorporate new offerings such as supplemental delivery-only brands and new drive-thru, delivery and takeout services.
In fact, video has emerged in recent years as an important tool in providing workplace training. A 2019 report from Kaltura found that more than 90% of respondents report having used video to learn new information at their current workplace, and close to 70% say they prefer this medium over written documents.
80
%
While 80 percent of companies have a policy for securing and accessing documents, according to IDC, other research has shown that print often is overlooked in security policies. For instance, a 2019 Quocirca survey found only about half (51 percent) of organizations have a formal print security policy, and just 48 percent apply regular firmware updates.
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78%
95%
67%
83%
Food Safety
Technologies
Monitoring
The policies and procedures that restaurant workers need to follow have become much more complicated and fluid during the past year.
State and local recommendations for safe operations have changed frequently, with dining rooms opening and closing at various capacities and even outdoor seating subject to off and on restrictions.
This, combined with operators’ own practices put in place to protect the health of their employees and customers, has created a jumble of new procedures that can only be taught, implemented and monitored for compliance using technology.
Inventory receiving also has not become any easier during the past year, as operators have often had to change suppliers due to ingredient shortages in the supply chain and other logistics challenges.
The DayMark® Task Management and Receiving Module address these issues by helping operators oversee task activity from a centralized location and adding functionality to the inventory receiving process. These tools also help operators protect the health of their workers and customers by incorporating tools that allow them to record employee body temperatures and conduct driver COVID-19 risk assessments, and then restrict access to facilities for those who may be ill.
In addition to tracking employees’ temperatures, the DayMark Task Management app also allows managers to assign, view and track cleanings, food prep, equipment checks and other kitchen tasks.
It includes a dashboard that allows users to review the history of received shipments with a variety of charts that measure data related to vendors, items and delivery times.
The Receiving Module allows receivers to quickly and accurately track shipment and vendor data, including:
Enhance food safety
Quantities
Non-conformances
Incomplete orders
March 2020
+ 116%
March 2021
DayMark's MenuCommand web-based kitchen automation platform encompasses a suite of apps designed to deliver greater efficiencies for temperature monitoring, task and receiving management, food labeling, and recipe management to every food service kitchen.
DayMark’s MenuCommand®
116%
The Temp Monitoring and Food Check solution, powered by JRI, offers a reliable, HACCP-compliant solution that eliminates the need for manual refrigerator and freezer temperature monitoring, and also can be used in prep stations and holding areas, such as buffets.
Temp Monitoring
The Nutritics Insight menu management and nutrition analysis solution offers a cloud-based program that leverages a robust database of ingredients. It allows operators to easily build and manage recipes and share with others across a multi-unit organization.
Nutritics Insight Menu
Labeling solutions from DayMark, meanwhile, further augment operators’ food-safety efforts by allowing restaurants to indicate shelf life and ensure proper rotation for prepped items in storage.
DayMark Temp Monitoring and Food Checks Solution
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MenuCommand® Kitchen Automation, featuring MenuPilot® for Food Safety Labeling
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Essential for
Kitchen Automation
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What Does Your
Food Delivery Look Like?
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TamperSeal™ - Keep Food Delivery Items Safe with Labels & Stickers
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Tamper Evident
Labels
SALES FLYER
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TamperSeal™ Tamper-Evident Labels
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Automation for a
Better, Safer
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SALES FLYER
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MenuCommand® Kitchen Automation, featuring MenuPilot® for Food Safety Labeling
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Automation in Menu Management and Training Resources
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Kitchen Automation from DayMark Solution
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DayMark’s labeling systems also provide ideal solutions for labeling ingredients and branding menu items that are packaged for off-premises consumption.
“MenuPilot® boasts enhanced communication. Shelf life, nutritional facts, allergens and prep data are stored in the cloud and accessible anytime, anywhere, so food-service workers can share procedures. This also allows for quick and easy food labeling,” says Carte.
