How a Craft Beer Bar and Coffee Bar Prevent Product Loss with Datacake Temperature Monitoring

Maintaining Perfect Conditions for Food and Beverage Storage

At the end of 2021, Fit Data came into contact with Gijs Schapendonk, owner of the craft beer tasting room Goesting and the coffee bar Knisper in Venray, Netherlands. For Goesting, Gijs was looking for a reliable solution to continuously monitor the temperature of refrigerators and freezers and receive immediate alerts whenever deviations occurred.

For restaurants, cafés, and hospitality businesses, maintaining the correct storage temperature is not just about serving quality products; it is essential for food safety, regulatory compliance, and controlling operational costs.

A refrigerator left open overnight, a freezer malfunction, or a simple human error can quickly result in spoiled products, wasted inventory, and unnecessary energy consumption.

To gain continuous visibility into their cooling installations and receive immediate alerts when temperatures deviated from acceptable ranges, Gijs partnered with Fit Data to implement a smart IoT monitoring solution powered by Datacake and LoRaWAN technology.

The Challenge: Ensuring Continuous Temperature Control

Goesting stores a wide selection of specialty bottled and canned beers, while Knisper relies on refrigerated storage to preserve ingredients and products at optimal conditions. Until 2021, temperature checks largely depended on manual processes, making it difficult to detect problems immediately.

The goal was clear:

• Monitor refrigerators and freezers 24/7
• Receive instant notifications when temperatures exceed defined thresholds
• Maintain consistent product quality
• Reduce the risk of spoilage and waste
• Improve food safety compliance

To achieve this, Fit Data designed a fully automated monitoring system based on LoRaWAN sensors and the Datacake IoT platform.

The Solution: LoRaWAN Temperature Monitoring with Datacake

In December 2021, the first phase of the project was launched. Two Milesight EM300-TH sensors were installed inside Goesting's beer cooling systems, including the draught beer cooling installation and the bottle cooler where specialty beers are stored.

The sensors measure both temperature and humidity every 20 minutes and transmit the data wirelessly via a RAKwireless LoRaWAN gateway to the Datacake IoT platform.

Using Datacake, Gijs gains real-time visibility into:

• Current temperatures
• Historical temperature data
• Long-term trends
• Alarm notifications
• Sensor status

Instead of relying on manual checks, the system continuously monitors refrigeration performance around the clock.

Preventing Product Loss with Continuous Monitoring and Alerts

The benefits of the solution became evident only weeks after installation, when one of the bottle coolers was accidentally left switched off after being restocked.

Datacake immediately detected the rising temperature and triggered an alarm, allowing staff to intervene before the issue affected product quality.

"Within a few weeks after installation, the system had already proven its value. After refilling the bottle cooler, it turned out it had accidentally not been switched back on. Thanks to the immediate warning, we were able to intervene quickly. The temperature only increased slightly, our guests still received their beer at the correct serving temperature, and we avoided unnecessary energy costs for cooling the installation back down."— Gijs Schapendonk, Owner of Goesting and Knisper

This incident demonstrated how real-time monitoring can help prevent product quality issues while reducing operational costs.

Expanding Monitoring Across All Locations

Following the success of the initial deployment, Goesting decided to expand the monitoring system in July 2022.

Additional sensors were installed across all remaining refrigerators and freezers at Goesting, while Knisper also adopted the solution for temperature monitoring.

Today, the deployment consists of:

• 8 Milesight EM300-TH temperature and humidity sensors
• 2 RAKwireless LoRaWAN gateways
• The Datacake IoT platform for monitoring, reporting, and alerting

Together, these devices provide continuous monitoring of every critical cooling and freezing installation across both locations, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Smart Alerting That Staff Cannot Miss

Datacake provides flexible alerting options through email, SMS, webhooks, and, more recently, push notifications through the new Datacake Mobile App.

While email and SMS alerts ensure that critical events are captured, hospitality staff are often busy serving customers and may not always be checking their inboxes or phones. To further improve visibility, Fit Data developed an additional visual alerting solution.

When Datacake detects an alarm condition, the platform automatically triggers a wireless signal to Kuando Busylight LED indicators installed on-site. Each refrigerator and freezer is assigned its own color-coded alert, allowing staff to immediately identify where an issue is occurring and take action.

Combined with Datacake's mobile push notifications, this approach ensures that critical temperature deviations are noticed and addressed as quickly as possible.

Why Datacake for Cold Chain Monitoring?

For Fit Data, Datacake provides a flexible and reliable platform capable of supporting professional monitoring projects for hospitality customers. Several Datacake capabilities play an important role in the deployment:

• Real-Time Dashboards — Operators can instantly visualize temperatures, trends, and historical data through customizable dashboards.
• Advanced Alerting — Datacake automatically notifies users when temperature thresholds are exceeded, allowing immediate intervention.
• Historical Data and Reporting — Continuous data logging provides complete temperature histories for quality assurance and compliance purposes.
• LoRaWAN Integration — Datacake seamlessly integrates with LoRaWAN devices and gateways, enabling reliable wireless monitoring without complex infrastructure requirements.
• Datacake Mobile App — Goesting and Knisper can monitor their complete refrigeration system from anywhere, with real-time dashboards and push notifications for faster response times.

The Results

With Datacake, LoRaWAN technology, and implementation support from Fit Data, Goesting and Knisper now benefit from a reliable monitoring system that continuously safeguards their refrigeration infrastructure.

The solution contributes to:

• Consistent product quality
• Improved food safety
• Reduced risk of spoilage and waste
• Lower operational costs
• Faster response to failures and temperature deviations
• Complete visibility into refrigeration performance

Nearly five years after the initial deployment, Gijs Schapendonk continues to rely on Datacake and Fit Data to monitor his hospitality locations with confidence.

Hardware and Technologies Used

Looking Ahead

Having experienced the value of real-time monitoring firsthand, Fit Data is now building on the success of the Goesting and Knisper deployments to bring similar solutions to more hospitality businesses across the Netherlands. The ability to detect issues before they impact product quality, reduce food waste, and simplify compliance has proven highly valuable in day-to-day operations.

This growing adoption highlights how IoT monitoring is becoming an essential tool for hospitality businesses seeking to protect product quality, improve efficiency, and deliver a consistently high customer experience.