Quick-serve and fast-casual restaurant customers expect consistently high-quality food. And for restaurants, clean, properly filtered cooking oil helps make this a reality. Unlike the traditional way of manually recording oil filtration practices, restaurants can now improve food quality, create consistent practices, and improve oil management through Filtration Monitoring from Restaurant Technologies Inc. (RTI).
RTI’s Filtration Monitoring technology immediately collects data from sensors in the fryer system and delivers it to the customer’s RTI Total Operations Management (TOM) online portal. It tracks how often the oil is filtered, when it is filtered, and for how long. Data is automatically compared to the restaurant’s ideal filtration processes, so any deviations are tracked. Managers can opt to receive mobile or email alerts that can be used to correct filtration oversights instantly or be used for staff training on standard filtration procedures.
“The RTI Filtration Monitoring system has helped us do a better job monitoring the maintenance of our oil. We are able to use the oil longer, and improve the quality of our fried foods,” says Jeff Lingel, area director, Apple American Group.
Via the TOM portal, managers can monitor data for single or multiple restaurant locations, analyzing oil quality, usage, and filtration statistics. The portal provides easy-to-interpret graphs eliminating data analysis and enabling managers to take action quickly on SOP compliance and process improvements.
Without RTI Filtration Monitoring, employees may be visually judging when to filter and manually recording the number and length of filtration times. Consequently, staff can often report inaccurately or follow an inconsistent schedule. These errors lead to varied food quality, shorter life for oil, or over usage of shortening, all impacting profits.
“Customers know when their fried foods have been cooked in old, stale oil. It has a significant impact on loyalty,” says Jeff Kiesel, chief executive officer, RTI. “But managing for proper and consistent filtration can be challenging too. The RTI Filtration Monitoring system allows restaurants to easily manage to their own standards, correct operating procedures, and help employees understand the role filtration plays in food quality and loyalty.”
RTI Filtration Monitoring works with existing RTI Total Oil Management systems, a patented cooking oil delivery system that automatically delivers fresh oil and removes waste oil at each restaurant, replacing traditional practices that are more cumbersome and hazardous for restaurant employees.
