IFCO installs sanitation monitors at RPC processing facilities

IFCO North America has completed the installation of IFCO SYSTEMS’ proprietary SmartGuardian monitoring technology in all six of its U.S. Reusable Plastic Container (RPC) service centers. SmartGuardian is software that monitors and controls IFCO’s RPC cleaning and sanitation process.

SmartGuardian has been installed at all six of IFCO’s U.S. RPC processing facilities:

• McDonough, Georgia (August 2015)
• San Antonio, Texas (December 2015)
• Bolingbrook, Illinois (January 2016)
• Rancho Cucamonga, California (January 2016)
• Portland, Oregon (January 2016)
• Fresno, California (February 2016)

Combined, the six processing facilities employ nearly 1,000 full time workers who are directly tasked with the cleaning, washing and sanitation of RPCs.

SmartGuardian technology helps ensure IFCO RPCs are processed according to company and industry food safety standards, the company said. Water pressure and temperature, detergent and disinfectant concentrations and contact time are continually monitored via sensors. If any parameter is not in line with the specified value, the system automatically sends an alert or may stop the wash machine, IFCO said.

Each pallet of clean RPCs is then identified with a quality label identifying the wash location, wash machine, and the date and time the RPCs were washed. Lastly, as the pallets are loaded into trucks for distribution, the system tracks which customers are scheduled to receive the RPCs.

For more information, visit the IFCO North America website.