5 tech things: Texas A&M expands tech-enabled ordering options

In this special edition of its 5 Things series, Food Management highlights five recent technology-related developments affecting the foodservice world.

Here’s your list for today:

Texas A&M Dining plans to expand throughout the year with mobile ordering and self-checkout kiosks at multiple locations. “We have our self-order kiosks at most of our retail locations and at most of our convenient stores as well,” says Marketing Director for Aggie Dining Brittany Coker. “We launched mobile ordering in September...through the transact mobile ordering app,” she adds. “We have them right now at a lot of our internal brands so Copperhead Jack’s, 1876 Burgers, Houston Street Subs and Rev’s.”

Read more: A&M dining to innovate with new technology, food expansion

Food-making robot maker Picnic Works has announced a new partnership with modular kitchen manufacturer ContekPro to deliver custom-built, pre-fabricated kitchens to quick service operators, hotel chains and other sites that want a pizza robot restaurant in a box. The modular kitchen allows an operator to establish a dining outlet simply by dropping a shipping container kitchen into a parking lot or some other easily accessible location.

Related:5 things: Chartwells K12 introduces plant-based concept with 120+ vegan/vegetarian options

Read more: Picnic Partners With Modular Kitchen Manufacturer To Deliver Pizza Kitchen in a Box

Locally based Zing Drone Solutions partnered with California-based firms A2Z Drone Delivery and Skyway to deliver on-demand meals, portable chargers and other essentials to residents of Sanibel Island in Florida while only way in and out of town, the Sanibel Causeway bridge, was being repaired from the damage caused by Hurricane Ian. While the causeway reopened after a few days to residents, it was initially with limited hours, so the trio of drone delivery companies stepped in to fill the gaps.

Read more: Drones deliver meals to hurricane-impacted Floridians

United Natural Foods Inc. has entered an agreement with business management software firm Cornerstone for Natural to bring its Smart Shelf Tags to the wholesaler’s retailers and suppliers. The tags contain ELi QR Codes, an enhanced, more secure version of a QR code that can be scanned to provide shoppers with additional product information and rich digital content on their mobile phones without having to launch an app.

Related:5 things: Congress urged to expand school meal community eligibility program

Read more: UNFI looks to outfit retailers with ‘smart’ shelf tags

A team from robotics research firm EPFL recently presented a paper at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Kyoto, Japan, describing a drone that can boost its payload of food from 30% to 50% of its mass by having its wings made from rice cakes that contain the caloric equivalent of an average, if unbalanced, breakfast. The partially edible device is designed for use in extreme situations where access to food is limited in the short term, so deliveries have to maximize caloric payload.

Read more: Eat This Drone: With wings made from rice cakes, this drone is designed to save your life

Bonus: 13 last-minute winter desserts to dazzle on demand

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]