--- title: "MQTT Broker for Food & Beverage Manufacturing | ConnectMQ" description: "Connect filling lines, cold rooms, silos, CIP and refrigeration to a managed MQTT broker — live data for OEE, food-safety records, maintenance and energy." url: "https://connectmq.com/industries/food-beverage/" language: "en" --- ![](https://connectmq.com/images/industries/hero/food-beverage.webp) # Food plant data, from line to cold chain Fillers, cold rooms, silos, CIP skids and refrigerated trucks publish over MQTT; your MES, food-safety records, maintenance and energy tools subscribe. ConnectMQ runs the broker, so your team can focus on throughput, quality and waste. [Try it free](https://app.connectmq.com/signup) [Use cases](#use-cases) No card required The challenge ## What gets in the way on the plant floor 1. 01 ### Mixed lines, mixed controllers A plant grows line by line: a 20-year-old filler next to a new case packer, each with a different PLC and HMI. One view of stoppages and output means stitching together exports at the end of the shift. 2. 02 ### Temperatures on paper Cold rooms, blast freezers, pasteurisers and reefers are still often checked by hand or by loggers read after the fact — a problem shows up at the next check, not when the temperature starts to rise. 3. 03 ### Energy and water you can’t see Refrigeration, steam, compressed air and CIP are among the biggest running costs of a food plant, yet they are metered monthly per site instead of per line, shift or product. Why ConnectMQ ## Why food and beverage teams choose ConnectMQ One managed MQTT broker for the line, the cold store and the trucks: every device publishes once, and every system that needs the data subscribes. - ### No broker to run A private, isolated broker instance managed for you. Your controls engineers connect gateways in an afternoon instead of building and patching servers at every plant. - ### Secure by default TLS, credentials per gateway and per-topic ACLs. Your refrigeration contractor or co-packer can publish to their own topics without seeing the rest of the plant. - ### One namespace from line to truck The ISA-95 topic workspace models site, area, line and machine, and the reefers in your fleet publish alongside — one tree for OEE, food safety and logistics. - ### Alerts while there is time to act Threshold rules notify the shift lead when a cold room warms, a CIP return temperature drops or a filler stops — so someone can step in before the next scheduled check. Key use cases ## Key use cases in Food & Beverage Food and beverage plants usually start with cold chain and refrigeration, then extend the same topics to machine health, tank and silo levels and energy per line. [ ### Cold Chain Monitoring Temperature, door and location data from reefers, cold rooms and pharma shipments, with alerts on every excursion Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/cold-chain-monitoring/)[ ### Predictive Maintenance Stream vibration, temperature and motor current to your models and open work orders before a machine fails Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/predictive-maintenance/)[ ### Tank Level Monitoring Remote level readings from fuel, chemical, LPG and bulk tanks for vendor-managed inventory and timely refills Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/tank-level-monitoring/)[ ### Energy Management Sub-metered energy per site, line and asset, with peak-demand alerts in real time Explore the use case](https://connectmq.com/use-cases/energy-management/) Architecture ## From the line to your systems - Filler & packer PLCs - Cold room & reefer sensors - Silos, tanks & CIP skids - Energy & water meters **ConnectMQ**MQTT 3.1.1 · 5 · TLS - MES & OEE dashboards - Food-safety & HACCP records - CMMS & maintenance - ERP & energy reporting Example topic namespace ``` food/dallas/filling/line-2/filler/state (retained) food/dallas/filling/line-2/filler/counts food/dallas/cold-store/room-3/temperature food/dallas/silos/silo-4/level ``` Related solutions ## Solutions for Food & Beverage [ ### Industrial IoT & Smart Manufacturing Machines, PLC gateways, OEE and quality data Learn more](https://connectmq.com/industrial-iot/)[ ### Fleet Telematics Vehicle tracking, telematics and cold chain Learn more](https://connectmq.com/fleet-logistics/) ## Food & Beverage: frequently asked questions How do I monitor cold room temperatures with MQTT? Fit temperature probes to a gateway or Wi-Fi sensor that publishes readings every minute to topics such as food/dallas/cold-store/room-3/temperature. Retained messages keep the last value on every dashboard, threshold rules alert when a room leaves its range, and your food-safety system subscribes to keep the record. Can MQTT feed HACCP temperature records? Yes — MQTT can deliver the readings for your critical control points to the system that keeps your HACCP records. ConnectMQ transports the data; storing, reviewing and signing off the records stays in your food-safety software and procedures. How do I connect older PLCs on a food production line to MQTT? Use an edge gateway — Node-RED, Kepware, Ignition or a vendor box — that reads the PLC over Modbus, OPC UA or S7 and publishes state, counts and alarms. The line stays as it is; only the gateway connects out to ConnectMQ over TLS. Is MQTT a good fit for OEE in food and beverage? Yes. Machines publish state, counts and rejects as they happen, and your OEE dashboard or MES subscribes and calculates availability, performance and quality per line and shift. Adding a line means adding topics, not building a new integration. ## Pilot one line or cold store on ConnectMQ Start on the Free plan — no card required. Connect a line, a cold room or a few reefers, see the data live, then move to Basic or Scale when you go live. No overage charges, cancel anytime. [Get started](https://app.connectmq.com/signup) [See pricing](https://connectmq.com/pricing/) ## Other industries - [Manufacturing](https://connectmq.com/industries/manufacturing/) - [Automotive](https://connectmq.com/industries/automotive/) - [Oil & Gas](https://connectmq.com/industries/oil-gas/) - [Utilities](https://connectmq.com/industries/utilities/) - [Renewable Energy](https://connectmq.com/industries/renewable-energy/) - [Chemicals](https://connectmq.com/industries/chemicals/) - [Pharma & Life Sciences](https://connectmq.com/industries/pharma-life-sciences/) - [Healthcare](https://connectmq.com/industries/healthcare/) - [Transportation & Logistics](https://connectmq.com/industries/transportation-logistics/) - [Retail & E-commerce](https://connectmq.com/industries/retail-ecommerce/) - [Telecom](https://connectmq.com/industries/telecom/) - [Financial Services](https://connectmq.com/industries/financial-services/) - [Agriculture](https://connectmq.com/industries/agriculture/) ## Articles [All articles](https://connectmq.com/blog/) Managed MQTT Cloud ### [How to Choose an IoT MQTT Broker: 12 Criteria and the Questions to Ask Your Vendor](https://connectmq.com/blog/how-to-choose-an-iot-mqtt-broker/) A practical 12-point checklist for choosing an IoT MQTT broker, a table of questions to ask every vendor, and a five-minute hands-on test you can run against broker.connectmq.com. September 21, 20269 min read Managed MQTT Cloud ### [What Is a Managed MQTT Broker? Benefits, Costs and How to Choose](https://connectmq.com/blog/managed-mqtt-broker/) A managed MQTT broker lets you run IoT messaging without operating servers, certificates or patches yourself. Compare managed and self-hosted, pick a deployment model and connect your first client in five minutes. September 1, 202610 min read Industrial IoT ### [Sparkplug B and the Unified Namespace: Structuring Industrial IoT Data on MQTT](https://connectmq.com/blog/mqtt-sparkplug-b-unified-namespace/) Sparkplug B gives industrial MQTT a strict session and payload model, while a Unified Namespace gives your plant data a single, readable home. Here is how they fit together, with topic design tips and live examples. August 26, 20269 min read