California-based digital transformation company UST has developed and installed temperature-tracking for Mydin, a Malaysian halal grocery chain, to monitor interior temperature levels at one of its hypermarkets.

In the outlet’s refrigeration units in Bertam, Penang, the technology has helped reduce the risk of food spoilage to deliver more consistent quality to customers and has led to improvements in the completeness and simplicity of the grocer’s regulatory reporting and compliance.

UST Cold Truth is a cloud-based temperature monitoring offering that intelligently detects temperature fluctuations and sends an alert for quick action. It offers savings on products for retailers that would otherwise be discarded due to temperature fluctuation or freezer failure.

“We chose to work with UST because they are experts in retail technology and business operations,” said Azmin Bin Saduruddin, executive director at Mydin. “As a global corporation, UST can provide Mydin with the service we need as a leading retailer in Malaysia.”

Temperature probes are placed at various locations inside the refrigerator or freezer to monitor temperature at a constant interval to ensure the temperature in all parts of the unit remains within the designated range. If any of the probes record a temperature out of range, the sensor node sends an alert to the UST Cold Truth gateway, which is implemented on an Intel NUC kit with an Intel Celeron processor.

Cold Truth records the data in the cloud and alerts the store manager, who can take immediate action. It also records temperature readings of all refrigeration units throughout the day. The data are retained in the cloud, ready to be retrieved and communicated on-demand to Malaysia’s governmental health inspectors and auditors.

Before implementing Cold Truth, the store maintenance staff checked each sensor five times each day, exceeding the twice-daily checks required by law in Malaysia. The staffer logged temperature readings at every location in every refrigeration unit. This manual process was time-consuming and inefficient and kept the maintenance team from performing other duties in the store. Further, the mandatory temperature logs were susceptible to human error, increasing the risk that a problem might be overlooked, or the store might fail an inspection and face penalties.

“We have products that are custom designed for multiple customers, and our enterprise products are gaining huge popularity,” said Subhodip Bandyopadhyay, general manager at UST. “Intel provided a great selection of hardware and software platforms, as well as engineering support during the development phase. Since we launched UST Cold Truth, its inclusion as an Intel IoT Market Ready Solution has helped us to communicate the benefits of our product to a wider audience.”

UST plans to expand this beyond retail stores to any venue or industry where temperature monitoring is a business-critical aspect of the operation.

“With UST Cold Truth, we can provide our clients with a cost-effective and time-saving solution,” said Gilroy Mathew, vice president and head of semiconductors at UST. “New technology gives retailers the shelf-level temperature readings they need to track equipment performance in real-time, reduce labour costs and simplify compliance with government regulations.”

UST has more than 26,000 employees in 25 countries.