With the food sector impacted by worker shortages and inflated costs throughout the year, automated food retail is leveling up with new solutions that help cut down on expenditures while enhancing the shopping experience. 

FoodIngredientsFirst caught up with Eduard Matei, COO of Bob Bistro, innovator of a “restaurant of the future” solution for food retail.

The Internet of Things solution consists of a series of smart fridge-type devices equipped with artificial intelligence and a “grab and go” technology with hundreds of sensors.

It was created for hospitality operators to sell and serve their fresh culinary products in a fully automated way, without the need for human intervention.

Benefits of the new dining system include reduced food waste, better control over food freshness and quality, availability round-the-clock and reduced costs for maintenance and staff.

“We strongly believe convenience of the future will look like this,” remarks Matei on the show floor of SIAL 2022.

“What we see here is an automated canteen that allows foodservice operators to run a business without employees in the store.”

“It’s a self-service restaurant that is made of a fridge, with a touchscreen with a list of products in the fridge. It connects with a mobile app. The client chooses a food from the display, like a pizza, and the system creates a QR code for payments that can be scanned by the app.”

The system has two payment solutions, pay now or pay later. “The pay later is an optional one so the operator can disable it if they want. once you pay, the mobile application gives you access to open the fridge and the system tells you wher the product you paid for is,” explains Matei.

“The solution is developed in Romania and we operate a network of 130 machines in Bucharest, which were installed in residential buildings,” he details. “It functions as a 24/7 automated bistro directly in the lobby of these buildings.”

“This is the first time we are presenting our solution to third-party operators and we are open to delivering it all over the world. It’s a good solution for hotels, restaurants, cafes, canteen and retail operators.”

Smart frozen food zone
AutoStore, the robot technology company that invented Cube Storage Automation, has recently developed a solution to automate the storage and retrieval of frozen food items. 

The company has selected Norwegian grocery retail tech provider, StrongPoint, to design and install its first solution built for food frozen food management. 

Previously, AutoStore’s solutions have only covered two temperature zones, chilled and ambient. Most grocery retailers have been using manual picking for frozen items when automating their e-grocery fulfillment services, an essential product segment for them.

StrongPoint will design and install the AutoStore solution for the Norwegian food distribution company, DLVRY, in a facility based in Sveio, Norway. In addition to increased efficiency, by adding frozen items to the AutoStore grid, substantial energy savings can be made.

This installation is expected to result in approximately 30% reduction in energy costs.

“Food management is so different to any other retail segment we wanted to ensure we had access to a team that really understood our unique challenges which is why we decided to work with StrongPoint,” remarks Jan Frode Johansen, co-founder and CEO of DLVRY.

“We are especially proud we are the world’s first company to use AutoStore’s frozen-food capabilities as it means we can achieve much higher efficiency rates by automating what was until now, not possible.”

“This is a great day for grocery retailers and food management companies looking at automation to boost efficiency as they can now automate all three temperature zones,” says StrongPoint CEO, Jacob Tveraabak.

Among other recent developments in automated retail, US-based RoboBurger is marketing the “first fully autonomous robotic burger chef in a box,” which can assemble a finished fast-food-like burger in four minutes. The company has captured US$10 million in a Seed 2 round of funding to grow and scale production.