Fast food lovers can now consider shifting up a gear thanks to the creation of a completely automated French fry vending machine.
The designers of this machine are a start-up company from the Netherlands called Caenator, who developed and produced it in collaboration with StartLife and Wageningen University & Research Centre.
The official launching took place on September 2, within the “Restaurant of the Future” on the Wageningen Campus, with the President of the Executive Board of Wageningen UR, prof. Louise Fresco, being the one to have a taste from the first bag of fries coming out of the prototype fryer.
The vending machine is very easy to operate, according to its creators, despite the quite complex state-of-the-art technology employed to create it, with every action being commanded by the user with the help of a large 32-inch touchscreen.
The machine contains a freezer with a 25kg capacity of frozen chips, which are then, at a push of a button, dropped into an internal deep fryer that does the job in just 110 seconds.
After being fried, a lift transports the chips to the dispenser, where the customer can pick them up. A double door separates the hot section of the machine from the freezer, the sauces and the color screen. The latter was developed in close collaboration with specialists from Wageningen UR.
Having the machine operate around the clock, with a retail cost of EUR1 for a large bag of fries, and profits achieved if the machine sells at least 40 portions a day, no wonder there is already a high level of interest for the product, as Bastiaan Roest from Caenator says: “Caterers and bar and restaurant owners see the machine as a way to retain or increase their turnover. Public transport companies see the machine as a way to make waiting less annoying. For various budget hotels, it is a way to offer a service to their guests 24/7.”
In another statement, Hans van Trijp, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Wageningen University, calls the chip dispenser an interesting product. “It creates the opportunity in a new, out-of-doors, setting to be less dependent on staff”.
