Food safety administration system

• US 6,577,969 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2001
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: McDonald's Corporation, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Yokogawa M & C Corporation (Yokogawa Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mcdonald's Company Limited (McDonald's Corporation), Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Yokogawa M & C Corporation (Yokogawa Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Kusano, Atsushi, Murakami, Kenji, Takeda, Kazumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Washburn, Douglas N
• Application Number:
  US09/800,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20020035439A1
• Time in Patent Office: 829 Days
• Field of Search: 993/26, 993/21, 993/37, 993/29.R, 702/81, 702/127, 702/130, 702/122, 702/128, 702/134, 702/182, 702/183, 702/83, 426/231
• US Class Current: 702/81
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A food safety administration system for controlling safety of of food handling locations, wherein a mobile inspection terminal measures the temperature of an object under test or receives data on the pass or failure status of the object; a device records the temperature data and the pass or failure data, according to check items on a checklist; and a device controls the safety of the location and of the food therein using the temperature data and pass or failure data provided as test data by the mobile inspection terminal, whereby data is reliably and quickly checked without use of paper based data.

Claims

1. A food safety administration system comprising:

mobile inspection terminal means for measuring temperature of an object under test and for receiving data on pass or failure of said object according to check items on a checklist, said mobile inspection terminal means being portable and hand holdable and comprising a flat surface face, a visual display disposed on said surface face, and a plurality of buttons disposed on said surface face and manually movable for operation of said mobile inspection terminal means and comprising at least a power button to turn ON and OFF said mobile inspection terminal means and a checker button to start operation of said visual display;

means for recording temperature data and pass or failure data under control of said plurality of buttons; and

means for controlling safety of food processing location using said temperature data and pass or failure data provided as test data by said mobile inspection terminal means.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a computer for editing said checklist;

and

wherein said edited checklist is inputted to said mobile inspection terminal means.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises:

temperature measuring means for measuring temperature of said object;

storage means for storing a checklist and test data;

item selection means for selecting check items from said check list in said storage means;

input means for providing instructions to said item selection means and for ordering said temperature measuring means to acquire temperature data and to receive pass or failure data; and

data processing means for storing temperature data provided by said temperature measuring means and said pass or failure data provided by said input means, in said storage means as said test data, according to a check item selected by said item selection means.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for selecting check items lacking corresponding test data from said checklist and said test data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said checklist contains reference temperature;

and

wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for displaying said reference temperature and said check items.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises checker selection means for selecting checker data from said checklist;

and

means for handling said checker data selected by said checker selection means as a test data item.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a computer for editing said checklist;

and

wherein said edited checklist is inputted to said mobile inspection terminal.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises clock means for providing a date, time or both;

and

means for handling an output from said clock means as a test data item.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a computer into which said test data from said mobile inspection terminal means is inputted to create a table of test results.

10. A food safety administration system comprising:

mobile inspection terminal means for measuring temperature of an object under test and for receiving data on pass or failure of said object according to check items on a checklist, said mobile inspection terminal means being portable and band holdable and comprising a flat surface face, a visual display disposed on said surface face, and a plurality of buttons disposed on maid surface face and manually movable for operation of said mobile inspection terminal means and comprising at least one power button to turn ON and OFF said mobile inspection terminal means and a check button to start operation of said visual display;

means under control of said plurality of buttons for recording temperature data and pass or failure data and;

thereby controlling safety of food using said temperature data and pass or failure data provided as test data by said mobile inspection terminal means.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises:

temperature measuring means for measuring temperature of said object;

storage means for storing a checklist and test data;

item selection means for selecting check items from said checklist in said storage means;

input means for providing instructions to said item selection means and for ordering said temperature measuring means to acquire temperature data and to receive pass or failure data; and

data processing means for storing temperature data provided by said temperature measuring means and said pass or failure data provided by said input means, in said storage means as said test data, according to a check item selected by said item selection means.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for selecting check items lacking corresponding test data from said checklist and said test data.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said checklist contains reference temperature;

and

wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for displaying said reference temperature and said check items.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises checker selection means for selecting checker data from said checklist;

and

means for handling said checker data selected by said checker selecting means as a test data item.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a computer for editing said checklist;

and

wherein said edited checklist is inputted to said mobile inspection terminal.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises clock means for providing a data, time or both;

and

means for handling an output from said clock means as a test data item.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising a computer into which said test data from said mobile inspection terminal means is inputted to create a table of test results.

18. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for editing said checklist;

and

wherein said edited checklist is inputted to said mobile inspection terminal means.

19. A food safety administration system comprising:

mobile inspection terminal means for displaying a check item and for measuring temperature of an object under test and for receiving data on pass or failure according to check items on a checklist;

means for recording temperature data and pass or failure data; and

means for controlling hygiene or safety of food for a food shop using said temperature data and pass or failure data provided as test data by said mobile inspection terminal means.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises:

temperature measuring means for measuring temperature of said object;

storage means for storing a checklist and test data;

item selection means for selecting check items from said checklist in said storage means;

input means for providing instructions to said item selection means and for ordering said temperature measuring means to acquire temperature data and to receive pass or failure data; and

data processing means for storing temperature data provided by said temperature measuring means and said pass or failure data provided by said input means, in said storage means as said test data, according to a check item selected by said item selection means.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein said input means contains one buttom for both ordering said temperature measuring means to acquire a temperature data and receiving pass data according to check items on said checklist.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein said checklist contains a recording method which shows the type of test data, temperature, pass or failure data;

and

wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for measuring the temperature of an object and for receiving data on pass or failure according to said recording method.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said checklist contains a reference temperature;

and wherein said mobile inspection terminal means comprises means for displaying said reference temperature and said check items in case of temperature depending on said recording method and for displaying said pass and failure data and said check items in case of pass or failure data depending on said recording method.