Associated Food Stores Optimizes Food Safety

Associated Food Stores (AFS) has partnered with PakSense, a Boise, Idaho-based provider of monitoring solutions, to employ two new systems at its distribution center, in Farr West, Utah, to help monitor temperature and ensure that products remain in food safety compliance during transport and storage. Both systems took 12 months to implement.

AutoSense Inbound allows AFS to track the temperature of a pallet during transport between the vendor and the distribution center. Vendors purchase, program and set the chip on their pallets before they'e shipped. When a pallet arrives at the distribution center, it syncs with AFS’ iBrite monitoring system and provides a temperature report, allowing the receiving team to determine how safe a product is before accepting the load.

“A few months ago, we received a load of bananas that had basically cooked inside the trailer during transport. With the report from AutoSense Inbound, we were able to show that it wasn’t safe and it saved us from losing the load,” said Terri Jensen, receiving manager at the distribution center.

Meanwhile, AutoSense Real-Time logger helps monitor the temperature of products stored in trailers when the distribution is in overflow. The system monitors the temperature inside each trailer and sends an alert to the receiving team if any go out of range, allowing the team to quickly check it and make adjustments before the product is compromised.

AFS is an independent retailer-owned warehouse based in Salt Lake City that provides complete warehouse facilities and services to 400-plus grocers throughout the Intermountain West.