The member companies of the HKI Industrieverband Haus-, Heiz- und Küchentechnik e.V., supported by the OPC Foundation, have submitted a proposal for a standard which has been adopted by the DIN standards committee FNH Heiz-, Koch- und Wärmgerät for DIN/TS 18898 "Commercial kitchen equipment - Communication interface for commercial kitchen equipment - OPC Unified Architecture".

In DIN/TS 18898, relevant equipment data for various groups of commercial kitchen equipment are described semantically and in machine-readable form. The standardised communication interface for catering equipment ensures that equipment from different manufacturers use the same language and can therefore be more easily integrated into existing systems. Device data such as operating states, temperatures or times can thus be recorded in a standardised manner and used for higher-level IoT services, such as:

• Documentation and archiving of HACCP-relevant data
• Monitoring and visualisation of processes
• Management and maintenance of equipment data
• Transmission of error messages and alarm functions

DIN/TS 18898 currently defines device data for the following device groups: