Tulip Tree Creamery is a craft dairy and cheese producer in Indianapolis, USA, specializing in making cheeses using traditional European recipes, combined with the experience and new ideas of owner Fons Smits, who has worked as a consultant for dairy factories in many countries for over 20 years.
Smits started making his own cheese in June 2014, aiming to create distinctive products for local customers, such as triple cream cheese, natural rind cheese, and washed rind cheese.
However, maintaining consistent cheese quality requires precise control of temperature and humidity within the aging rooms. Tulip Tree therefore chose to use a wireless Data Logger system from T&D to help monitor environmental conditions, record data, and provide alerts when values fall outside the specified range.
Challenges in Cheese Aging Room Control
Tulip Tree stores its products in a warehouse approximately 3,500 square feet in size, a space shared with other local businesses.
Inside the warehouse are four cheese aging rooms, each used for a different type of cheese and requiring different environmental conditions.
Cheeses that are aromatic and rely on surface mold need a high-humidity environment for proper mold growth, while natural rind cheeses require lower humidity. However, if the humidity is too low, the cheese will lose weight due to evaporation, the rind may crack, and quality issues can arise.
Smits therefore needed more detailed information than general monitoring could provide, to know immediately if the temperature or humidity in the aging room began to change or moved outside the optimal range.
Installation of T&D Wireless Monitoring System
The installed system consists of the following main devices:
- 1 RTR-500AW Network Base Station
- 1 RTR-502 Wireless Temperature Data Logger
- 2 RTR-507S Wide Range Temperature and Humidity Data Loggers
The data loggers are small and easy to install. The devices were placed on the outside walls of the aging rooms, and the temperature sensors were routed through the walls into the rooms. The Base Station was installed in the hallway between the aging rooms.
The system can communicate wirelessly between the Data Loggers and the Base Station up to approximately 150 meters in open spaces, making it suitable for monitoring within warehouses, supermarkets, cold rooms, and temperature-controlled transport vehicles.
The RTR-502 uses an external temperature sensor, supporting measurements from approximately -60°C to 155°C, while the RTR-507S can measure ambient temperatures from -30°C to 80°C and relative humidity from 0 to 99%RH.
The devices have a temperature measurement accuracy of approximately ±0.3°C and a humidity measurement accuracy of approximately ±2.5%RH, with a large LCD screen for direct viewing of current values.
Each Data Logger can record up to approximately 16,000 data points and operate on batteries for about 10 months. The system was set to measure and record data every 10 minutes to continuously track changes in each room.
The RTR-500AW automatically downloads data wirelessly from the loggers, then sends the data via Wi-Fi or LAN to email, FTP folders, or T&D's cloud-based Web Storage service.
Note: The RTR-500 Series has been discontinued and superseded by the RTR500B Series, which is the current replacement model.
More Precise Cheese Quality Control
After installing the system, Tulip Tree can continuously monitor the temperature and humidity in each aging room, allowing for better adjustment of the cooling and humidity control systems to suit each type of cheese.
Smits found that humidity control directly impacts cheese quality and consistency, especially for natural rind cheeses that can easily lose weight due to evaporation.
After reviewing the data from the Data Logger, he decided to increase the humidity level in the natural rind cheese aging room and found that product quality improved significantly.
The recorded data also helps to assess the performance of the air conditioning and humidity control systems over time. If cheese begins to lose moisture, staff can detect the problem and adjust the humidistat before the product is damaged.
Reducing cheese weight loss means more products can be sold, directly impacting the business's profitability.
Alert System Provides 24-Hour Product Protection
One of the main reasons Tulip Tree chose the T&D system was its ability to send automatic email alerts when temperature or humidity falls outside the specified range.
In the dairy and cheese industry, rapid response to anomalies is crucial, as excessively high temperatures can lead to bacterial growth and affect product safety.
When the cooling system in an aging room malfunctions, the Base Station immediately sends an email alert to the owner's mobile phone, allowing him to quickly adjust the thermostat or humidistat.
If the cooling system cannot be fixed in time, staff still have time to move the cheese racks from the affected room to another room that is still functioning normally.
The alert system thus reduces the risk of an entire room of cheese being damaged, even when no staff are present at the factory.
Supports HACCP Standard Audits
The recorded environmental data is also beneficial for food quality and safety audits, particularly for HACCP standards.
Tulip Tree can present historical temperature and humidity data to inspectors to confirm that product storage rooms are continuously monitored and that all values are within safe levels.
As this facility is Grade B, it must be inspected by state health authorities every three months, and each room used for product storage must have clear temperature measurement methods.
The T&D system allows inspectors to view data for specific periods and verify that the factory is seriously investing in quality and safety.
Using Data to Improve Employee Performance
The system software allows Smits to monitor data from each Data Logger, both individually and in groups, as well as to check wireless signal strength and device status.
He also uses data from the temperature logger in the cold room, set at approximately 3°C, to teach employees the importance of closing aging room doors.
The data graph shows that even when a door is opened for only a few seconds, the temperature inside the room can rise rapidly. This real data helps employees to be more careful and contributes to protecting product quality in the long run.
Business Outcomes
After installing the T&D system, temperature and humidity monitoring in all aging rooms is automated, complete with an alert system for anomalies.
The most significant benefit for the business owner is the assurance that the aging room environment is continuously monitored, even when he is not at the factory.
The data obtained helps improve storage conditions, reduces cheese weight loss, enhances product consistency, and increases the quantity of sellable products.
In the future, Tulip Tree plans to expand the system to monitor milk cooling tanks and pasteurization processes, as well as to add more temperature and humidity loggers at various points.
The wireless monitoring system is therefore ideal for food and beverage businesses that need to control product quality, whether products are stored in warehouses, cold rooms, or temperature-controlled transport vehicles. It is easy to install and use without the need for a dedicated IT team.
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Reference: https://tandd.com/usage/creamery.html
