Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Coronavirus

The Spoon team is working hard to bring you the latest on the impact of COVID-19. Bookmark this page for our full archive on the pandemic and how the food industry is embracing innovation to fight back.

On April 6th, The Spoon had a full day virtual summit on COVID-19 strategies for food & restaurants. You can watch all the sessions from our virtual strategy summit here.

You can also check out this COVID-19 resource page for food and restaurant industry.

Milan Based Seeds&Chips Postponed as Italy Puts Country on Lockdown to Stop COVID19

The coronavirus postponements and cancellations continue.

Today the organizer of Seeds & Chips, a large European event focused on food and agricultural innovation, announced it has been postponed.

The event, which takes place in Milan, had its hand forced in large part due a country-wide lockdown imposed by the Italian government. This week the Italian government imposed a ban on all non-essential travel to and around Italy as well as a temporary banning of public events through April 3rd in an effort to contain the coronavirus.

From the release:

“This is an announcement that we would never have wished to write but, sadly, as a consequence of the ongoing public health risks caused by COVID19 and according to what is laid down in decree of The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, on March 9th, 2020 – imposing restrictions on people’s movements and banning all public events and initiatives to prevent the outbreak of the COVID19 – we have decided to postpone our Summit” said Marco Gualtieri, Founder of Seeds&Chips.

While the travel restrictions are currently through April 3rd, that didn’t give S&C much time. There was also no guarantee the restrictions wouldn’t be extended even closer or through to the event’s dates (May 18th-20th).

As someone who puts on events, I understand how disappointing this must be for Gualtiieri and the Seeds&Chips team. The event, which I attended last year, is one of Europe’s biggest food and ag innovation events and usually has hundreds of speakers and thousands of attendees.

The group is currently considering alternatives around rescheduling a new event in Milan in September. S&C also puts on events in Australia and has one planned for Rwanda later this year and, as of now, those are still on as planned.

Startups Share Their Stories About the Coronavirus’ Impact

We’ve written about the coronavirus in broad terms, mostly as it relates to bigger trends. How will it impact food delivery, or grocery shopping or the business of food tech conferences?

But we wanted to learn more about how this outbreak is being felt on a more micro level. How is it impacting individual startups? We’ve been collecting stories from different companies to share with you here. And we want to hear from you. How is coronavirus changing your business? Drop us a line and let us know.

BEERMKR
(Ed. Note: Kickstarter projects like BEERMKR’s were among the first to get hit by the virus as manufacturing in China slowed down. This is taken from an update the company posted to its Kickstarter campaign page on Feb. 25th.)
Per the last update, we’ll be sending out weekly updates until this whole coronavirus situation resolves itself. Last week we saw our contract manufacturer come back online but in a very limited way. They still have a lot of people who haven’t been able to make it back to work, and those who did make it back to the region are now in mandatory quarantines for 2 weeks before being allowed to return to the office or factory. They expect this slow trickle to continue for the next few weeks.

The shop that handles our seals is coming back online this week. We’re optimistic that they can get going on the changes we need done, but they have not yet shared estimated production schedules with us. We should know more at some point this week.

Figo
We wanted to give on the spoon further insight on how the coronavirus is effecting our startup, Figo. Recently we have found sourcing internal electronic components a lot more difficult, along with longer lead times. Communications are event disrupted as some people are working and some are still in a state of quarantine. Delays with imported parts are major issues of most hardware manufacture businesses; however, other pieces of the company are being affected as well. More specifically Research and design, as injection molding and 3D printer part manufacturers are backed up for weeks. This is not only is the virus causing longer lead times, but companies are also responding with higher prices for their services. (One of the reasons we bought a 3D printer from the US this week and it got here in 3 days, so now we can rapid prototype internally.

Grounded
I’m the founder of Grounded (Ed. note: Grounded makes plant-based cheese). Coming from Australia, we’d already witnessed a major surge in demand—all well as investment—in plant based proteins from the Asia market. Which I believe is less a consumer driven trend and more about future food security.

When coronavirus hit, however, I imagine dairy supply came under more threat than ever (especially coupled with supply shortages arising from Australia’s post-bushfire economy). I think that’s why Grounded suddenly had such a spike in interest. There’s a lot of focus around our products providing a more resilient alternative to dairy, and one that’s not so reliant on international trade forces.

Spinn
(Ed. note: The makers of the eponymous connected coffee maker posted this update on its production in February)
Most of you are aware of the outbreak in China of the respiratory disease caused by the 2019 novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). The Chinese government has advised placing measures of isolation into practice in an effort to contain the propagation of the virus. In addition, shops and offices have been closed, working from home is encouraged, public events have been canceled and wearing masks in public is mandatory.

Following the two-week break for Chinese New Year, and as a consequence of the current climate, our factory in Shenzhen has not been operating as usual.

Our production facility reopened its doors on February 10th. However, not all workers are able to commute due to government restrictions imposed in certain areas. As a result, most factories, including ours, are not reaching their full capacity.

We are doing what we can to continue our line of production and helping our colleagues wherever necessary. It is important to note that our Shenzhen factory is part of a larger supply chain of motors, sensors, and numerous other parts that have all been put on hold. The impact of COVID-19 in the coming weeks is still unclear. As soon as we have more information from our local channels, we will share it with you.

This post will be updated as we hear from more companies.

Uber, DoorDash and Others ‘In Talks’ to Compensate Drivers Affected By Coronavirus

Under pressure to offer more protection to workers, major gig economy companies are considering setting up a fund to compensate drivers affected by the coronavirus, according to The Wall Street Journal. Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash, and Postmates are “in talks” to see how they can come together to set up a fund to pay workers infected by or quarantined with the virus.

Food delivery drivers are in high demand right now as more Americans are working from home or simply staying away from restaurants in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Postmates and Instacart have responded by implementing contactless delivery options where drivers simply leave food on the doorstep instead of handing it off directly to the customer.  

Those measures mitigate some risk. However, they don’t account for the fact that gig economy workers are classified as contractors in most states, which means they don’t get paid for time off, including sick leave. In some cases, taking time off for illness could drastically affect workers’ livelihoods. One worker told the WSJ that “staying home won’t pay the bills.”

That puts delivery drivers in a tough position: stay home and miss earning essential income, or work even when you’re feeling sick and potentially risk further spreading coronavirus. While this conundrum is true of many, many types of workers right now, gig workers are in especially high demand as more people order food in, rather than go out to restaurants. 

The aforementioned companies are expected to make a decision about this potential fund in a few days.  Uber has already said it will compensate up to 14 days for both rideshare drivers and delivery drivers diagnosed or quarantined with coronavirus.

Compensating affected drivers is just one of many issues around worker treatment for which delivery companies have come under fire recently. Uber, Lyft, and Postmates are on the list of gig economy companies currently fighting California’s Assembly Bill 5 — also known as the “gig worker bill” — which reclassifies those workers as employees and entitles them to certain benefits — including paid sick leave. DoorDash and Instacart famously made a lot of enemies in 2019 over their worker tipping policies. Meanwhile, advocacy groups like Gig Workers Rising and Gig Workers Collective are putting pressure on tech companies to enact better labor policies.

One possible result of the current outbreak is that it could prioritize the issue of gig workers’ rights and spur both regulators and tech companies into action faster. Coronavirus isn’t the last public health crisis we’ll see in our lifetimes. As gig economy jobs become the norm for a growing number of the population, ensuring better protection for workers’ health needs to be built right into the job description. 

How Is Coronavirus Impacting Your Business? Let Us Know

It’s been clear for the last month that coronavirus COVID-19 would spare pretty much no industry, and the food tech spaces we follow are no exception.

From trade show cancellations to the use of food delivery and robotics as a way to avoid infection, we’ve already seen a cascading set of changes that will have an impact across the food tech world for 2020 and possibly beyond.

As we continue to cover this story, we want to hear from you. If you work for, run or are affiliated with any initiative or company in the world food tech and are seeing your business impacted, we’re interested. If you have a story that you think it interesting but don’t want your name or company name revealed, just let us know and we can anonymize your identity or your company’s identity in the story.

We’re interested in hearing any story about how coronavirus has impacted food and kitchen tech related businesses, but we’re especially interested in hearing those stories about how the virus is potentially accelerating the adoption of new and innovative technologies that could have a long-term impact on business as usual.

So if you’ve been impacted or know of a way in which coronavirus is changing food in ways big or small, just drop us a line at tips@thespoon.tech and tell us more. Let us know if you are ok with us possibly writing a story and if you are ok with attribution or wish to remain anonymous.

Technomic Survey: Three in Ten Consumers to Eat Out Less Amid COVID-19 Fears

Even as the outbreak of coronavirus/COVID-19 continues to evolve and grow, we still don’t have a clear idea of exactly how much it will fundamentally change our entrenched, traditional behaviors. Are handshakes a thing of the past? Is working from home the new normal? Will we travel less for both work and fun?

While we can only wait to discover the answers to those bigger questions, a whitepaper from Technomic this week outlines some of the more immediate ways COVID-19 is impacting consumer behavior as it relates to how we get our food.

Technomic surveyed 1,000 consumers between Feb. 28 and March 2 and found “more than three in 10 consumers say they plan on leaving the house less often, not go to restaurants as often or not order food or beverages at away-from-home venues as often.” Additionally, of those refraining to eat out, “31 percent say that decreased frequency will last for between one and three months.”

Image via Technomic.

This isn’t great news for full-service restaurants, which are already having to work harder to attract foot traffic as off-premises grows more and more popular.

You might think this decrease in on-premise eating would translate into a wave of delivery orders from restaurants, but Technomic found that of people eating out less, only 13 percent think they will order more restaurant delivery because of the outbreak.

Technomic is quick to point out that there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the virus’ spread, so it’s too soon to tell exactly what its full impact will be. However, the survey does point out a couple of areas where the food industry could face the biggest impacts.

On the negative side, as alluded to earlier, Technomic says on-premise dining at restaurants could face the biggest downturn as people hole up at home and avoid crowds.

And while it’s weird to think of an “upside” to a global pandemic, Technomic rightly points that that if people do refrain from sitting in a restaurant to eat, drive-thrus and delivery restaurants (think: pizza) could become more popular.

Additionally, supermarkets, which have already seen a surge in panic shopping, could also see their foodservice items benefit as people grab meals while grocery shopping.

And while they don’t mention it specifically, an increase in food delivery could bring with it a boom in ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants as restaurant brands look to pare down their physical footprint and infrastructure costs.

We’ve been chronicling how COVID-19’s spread is already altering how the food industry does business — whether it’s food conferences being canceled, reducing human-to-human contact with delivery, using robots to deliver food, or Kickstarter projects being delayed.

But when it comes to this outbreak, there’s not a whole lot we can do but wait (and wash our hands!). Technomic’s survey certainly won’t be the last word as this crisis evolves, but at least it provides some numbers to help businesses prepare.

Postmates, Instacart Join No Human Contact Delivery Efforts in the U.S.

Food delivery service Postmates today announced what it’s calling Dropoff Options, a function that lets customers choose how they want to receive their deliveries. According to a company blog post, users can “choose to meet their Postmate at the door, as they have before, meet curbside, or go non-contact and have deliveries left at the door.” 

Postmates customers order their meals as usual then select their delivery method during the checkout process (see image above).

The post itself doesn’t mention coronavirus, but it doesn’t have to. Around the world, delivery services now offer various forms of this contactless delivery, where couriers and customers have no physical contact and in some cases don’t even see one another face to face. 

The bulk of the efforts so far have been in China, where the outbreak originated. Restaurant chains and delivery services — Ele.me, Meituan, McDonald’s, and KFC, to name just a few — are working together to limit the amount of human contact that happens during food delivery dropoffs. Drivers and couriers must wear masks, have their temperature taken, and disinfect their hands and delivery bags before and after each run.

South Korea’s top two delivery services, Baedal Minjok and Yogiyo, have also seen an uptick in food delivery orders and requests for couriers to leave packages on the doorstep.

Stateside, Postmates isn’t alone in its efforts to introduce more contactless delivery. As Business Insider noted, Instacart has also implemented contactless delivery with a service called “Leave at My Door Delivery.” The grocery delivery company told BI that it has actually been testing this service for several months and decided to make it available to all customers after seeing a “surge” in demand for it.

With “Leave at My Door Delivery,” Instacart customers can opt to have their grocery orders left at their doorstep during the designated timeframe for their order. 

Other food delivery companies, including Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats, have not yet implemented any kind of contactless delivery for their operations.

These new services from Postmates and Instacart so far only address the issue of one human getting close to another. They do not yet address steps like disinfecting the insulated delivery bags couriers use or taking workers’ temperatures — actions that are as much about the safety of drivers and couriers as they are about customers. One Instacart worker told the Financial Times that the company still wasn’t providing items like hand sanitizer or disinfectants. While Instacart’s new contactless delivery is “a step in the right direction,” it doesn’t “reduce our overall risks of exposure because most of our risks we actually encounter while shopping,” the worker said. 

Instacart workers in particular are exposed to more germs because part of their job involves moving around a grocery store, touching a shopping cart, and picking up items from shelves. But all gig economy companies should be factoring in the safety of their workers as they implement contactless delivery services.

Which is where the robots may come in. My colleague Chris Albrect has written more than once, we live in a time when delivery robots and driverless vehicles are actually available. Undelv has already said it would make its driverless delivery vans available to deliver food, medicine, and other supplies to quarantined areas. And as Chris pointed out, rover bots like those from Starship or Kiwi “could be an easy humanless way to deliver meals and medicines around the clock in densely populated areas.” I would add drone technology to that list of possible solutions.

Granted, outsourcing delivery jobs to drones would eat into gig workers’ pay. As well, a number of regulatory issues around autonomous delivery vehicles have yet to be addressed, which limits how widely these technologies can even be used. But whether by robot, masked workers, or some other solution that’s yet to be thought of, the contactless delivery method will get way more popular in the next few months — and probably alter the food delivery landscape for good in the process.