The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) is to use Anoto’s digital writing technology to improve the flow of information from its dairy hygiene inspectors to the head office.
The FSA, which inspects the hygiene of 3,000 farms in the UK per year, said its dairy hygiene inspectors had worked with paper before, which was then sent to the central support team for analysis.
David Brown, reporting and interface manager at the Food Standards Agency, said: "We experienced that our process of gathering information from the farmers was time consuming and often the farmer had to wait a number of days before receiving a copy of his forms.
Anoto’s digital writing allows inspectors to transmit information in real-time, which they send on to the central support team for validation. As a result, business processes are streamlined to five minutes per farm as opposed to five days per farm inspected.
"Digital pen technology has improved the efficiency both in the field and in the office and has eliminated the cost of posting the forms to the farmers," added Brown.
"The inspectors no longer need to carry laptops and we do not have to budget for that expenditure any longer. The digital pen has simplified and sped up the inspection process whilst ensuring data accuracy."
Anoto, headquartered in Sweden, said its digital writing solutions are currently used in businesses across healthcare, banking and finance, transportation and education
