Maryville University raises the bar on salads

Shopping at her local supermarket, Linda Thacker had an inspiration: Why couldn’t Maryville University, where she was director of dining services, offer the same sleek, well-maintained, easier-to-manage salad bar experience she found at the store?

This fall, her wish will be granted. Fresh Ideas, which handles foodservice for the St. Louis school, agreed to the idea and forged a deal with Swedish company Picadeli to install its tech-enhanced salad bar in the main dining hall. Maryville is the first U.S. college to have such an arrangement.

“We’re always looking for new, innovative ways to serve our students and clients,” says Kris Lensmeyer, chief innovation and experience officer with Fresh Ideas, which handles foodservice for the St. Louis school. “This solved a lot of issues.”

Any operator running a salad bar knows those issues all too well: labor, ensuring freshness, food safety, inventory management, waste and, of course, prep.

Automation allows the salad bar to remain open longer, something students have requested.

Picadeli’s solution is a turnkey prepared-food bar. The company designs and owns the equipment, which is branded, and rents it to customers. It also handles preparation and distribution of all the food items in the bar. Ingredients are shipped in QR-encoded containers that can be logged as they arrive; those QR codes also store information identifying the product and providing nutrition and allergen information that is subsequently displayed on digital signage.

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Sanitation and food safety are addressed a number of ways. Ultraviolet lights are built into the units and designed to disinfect surfaces. Tongs are suspended above food instead of sitting amid the ingredients, minimizing cross contamination. And sensors track the temperature of ingredients.

For Fresh Ideas, food safety was a high priority. “We didn’t want to put something in that wasn’t tested,” she says.

A conventional salad bar, Thacker says, must be set up and emptied every day. The Picadeli bar, on the other hand, has a night setting that preserves the food for the following day. Now, a thorough weekly cleaning, which takes about an hour, is sufficient.

Technology has streamlined inventory management as well. The bars are connected to the internet, which lets Picadeli know when items are low or at the end of their shelf life. Algorithms track usage and automatically create orders for additional ingredients. The operator also receives a notification when items need to be replenished.

“The product comes in already prepared and precut, so all we have to do is scan it, take the top off, and add it to the bar,” Lensmeyer says. “The system knows the date and how long those tomatoes are good for, so we don’t have to rely on human error.” Conveniently, the bar is designed with built-in refrigerated storage areas below for incoming deliveries, which frees up valuable walk-in cooler space.

Digital signs provide clever ingredient descriptions, allergens and nutrition information.

“In addition to the food, it is much easier to operate than a traditional salad bar,” Thacker says. “It requires less labor, which is probably the number one issue for me.”

Another benefit of automation is the ability to keep the salad bar open for longer hours, something students have requested. Previously, when an employee was assigned to manage the station and it was not self-serve, it stayed open for limited hours. Now it’s available from 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Students can pick up lunch, dinner or a light breakfast when it’s convenient for them.

The salad bar at Maryville University offers about three dozen choices. For now, Thacker says the school will follow a standard planogram provided by Picadeli that will change several times a year and provide some room for customization. The dining hall, for example, typically sells a large volume of cut-up fruit. Picadeli doesn’t stock its food bars with red meat, but bacon bits have always been popular, so a turkey bacon crumble is being considered. And Thacker says items can be switched if they aren’t selling well.

Although it’s too early in the school year to gauge how students will respond, both Thacker and Lensmeyer have high hopes. Lensmeyer says the modern, appearance of the new salad bar and the clever digital descriptions of items lend the new station a cool factor that students will find appealing.

Lensmeyer also praised Thacker’s initiative and willingness to innovate. “Marysville is always the first that wants to try things; they’re not afraid to put things out there to see if they work,” she adds.