With cold and flu season among us and the holidays right around the corner, health and safety are top of mind for consumers and brands—especially within the food industry.
That’s why restaurants are looking at ways to implement technology to address such concerns. One company offering a solution is PathSpot, with its flagship hand scanning product.
PathSpot’s HandScanner scans hands and wrists, detecting everyday and potentially infectious contaminants that spread through common illnesses.
PathSpot’s HandScanner scans hands and detects contaminants in two seconds.
How it works: The scanner mounts on walls adjacent to sinks. After washing their hands, team members place them under the scanner to check for contaminants. This is done through visible light fluorescence spectroscopy, which shows “spots” that washers missed.
Feedback is received in seconds via a green or red light indicating if hands are clean. The scanner also collects data through a live dashboard, which businesses can use to measure and improve handwashing compliance.
PathSpot Co-founder and CEO Christine Schindler launched the company in 2017—combining her background in biomedical engineering and public health with inspiration received after building low-cost resources in hospitals atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
On creating the hand washing tech, Schindler says, “it’s crazy that our [restaurants] best-practice solution was a sign that said ‘employees wash your hands before returning to work’—that really inspired me to start PathSpot and create safe, healthy ways for both front- and back-of-house employees and customers.”
PathSpot’s scanner grew in popularity amid the pandemic as safety concerns undoubtedly heightened.
Christine Schindler PathSpot co-founder, CEO
“Post 2020, employees, delivery drivers, and consumers are so much more aware of their health care, their accountability within that, and how disease is transmitted,” said Schindler. “A lot of this was not at the top of our minds or knowledge set before the experiences we went through.”
Aiding in off-premises safety
The product has also proven versatile in providing health safety for off-premises avenues. Schindler says she’s witnessed operations in which delivery drivers check their hands before grabbing orders.
“We work with a lot of ghost kitchens, commissary-style kitchens and delivery-type environments, on protecting everything from the food itself, temperature, employee’s hands…all of the above, because it can be even harder to keep up with those things in environments that are fast-moving,” said Schindler.
In addition to the scanner, PathSpot’s product suite offers PowerTemp, a temperature and humidity logger providing real-time sensor alerts to keep food safe and prevent waste.
PathSpot’s HandScanner charges a monthly subscription fee that includes the device itself, the data dashboard and consultation regarding actionable insights. The price range is based on size and number of devices, starting at $175.
