From Seed to Stomach: The Behind-the-Scenes Journey of Our Dinner

Across continents, countries and cultures, one common bond is universal. No matter what is in your bowl or on your plate, food is an ever-present form of nourishment, comfort and love for families. Food is the centerpiece of celebrations, an edible trip down memory lane, a tightly held tradition and the fuel to keep us going.

Consumers know their food’s destination: oven, dinner table, Instagram (#yum) and mouth. But what does it take to get our food safely from the farm to the table? Turns out, more than many realize. Food may seem like a low-tech spot in our high-tech days, but our food is online in a much cooler network than we are—literally.

Linking Up The Cold Chain

Emerson is leveraging Internet of Things technology to empower the cold chain: an interconnected system of high-tech facilities, shipping containers and transport vehicles that work behind the scenes to preserve food safety and maintain food quality. With deep cold chain expertise, Emerson has a significant presence across every link of the cold chain, including food-processing facilities, distribution and warehouse centers and retail sales locations worldwide.

From fresh fruits to meats to bags of frozen vegetables, much of the food consumers buy spends time in transit on the cold chain. Each step on this journey introduces opportunities for food to rise above safe temperatures—a risk for perishable foods in particular.

“Only a few decades ago, food transporters would put a thermometer in the food once it reached its destination, whether the trip was five or 500 miles,” said Bob Sharp, executive president of Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. “Now, we have the technology to give us constant insight into food temperature from the farm to the warehouse to the store, helping to protect food safety and quality for the customers we serve.”

This in-transit technology is powered by small sensors that monitor the surface temperature of food in transport. The sensors, nestled among the pallets of food, send an alert if food gets too hot (a safety issue) or too cold (a quality issue). Through this advanced technology, Emerson helps customers like Butterball gather real-time temperature insights for millions of turkeys on their way to holiday tables. Safeguarding food quality and safety continues after food’s safe arrival, as well. Emerson offers real-time refrigeration monitoring at more than 20,000 retail locations on four continents.

Internet-Powered Food Safety

Keeping food at the exact right temperature is crucial to keeping food safe as it travels from farm to warehouse to grocery store. Food safety is top of mind for most consumers: An Emerson survey found that nine out of 10 adults are concerned about food safety. When you consider that nearly 50 million Americans become sick from a food-borne illness each year, the concern comes into sharper focus.

Our Internet of Things technology helps companies meet the ever-expanding rules that keep food safe for consumers, as well. Our connected technology, across transit and in refrigerated processing and distribution centers, creates a permanent record of vital information, such as temperature and location, across the food change. This data has an elevated importance in 2017, helping transport companies, storage warehouses and retailers meet standards of the federal Food Safety Modernization Act, which went into effect late last year with a new wave of food safety regulations.

Emerson works closely with retail giants to make safe, temperature-controlled online grocery fulfillment possible. Our Cold Chain business works with smaller companies, as well. About 80 percent of food shipments in the U.S. are handled by smaller transport companies with a fleet of five or fewer trucks, making it difficult to make the investments necessary to meet federal regulations. By partnering with larger companies like Emerson, small businesses can comply without costly investments in their own equipment.  

Combined with our advanced monitoring of refrigeration and food at 17,000 retail sites and more than 2,000 shipping vessels globally, our Cold Chain business enables Emerson to offer end-to-end technology solutions to monitor food from farm to fork. This is what we see as a delicious win for customers and consumers.