Category: Coronavirus
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Recipes for Relief is ending its inaugural run today after raising more than $11,000 for foodservice workers like chefs and bartenders out of work because of the pandemic. The initiative was launched at the beginning of May, at the height of the shelter-in-place orders that forced so many restaurants to close dine-in operations or shut…
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This is the web version of our newsletter. Sign up today to get updates on the rapidly changing nature of the food tech industry. This week’s virtual Spoon event was a goldmine of information for restaurants and restaurant tech companies, or really anyone who wonders what the word “digitization” actually looks like in action in a restaurant.…
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You’ve heard about the uptick in snacking thanks to the pandemic. But perhaps no one is taking the rise of snacks more seriously than the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB). Today, the organization announced the return of its product innovation competition dubbed the Real California Milk Snackcelerator. The competition looks for food producers that integrate…
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Like most other types of food businesses, the convenience store is changing due to the pandemic, and that includes what’s on the menu when it comes to food. In line with that, today, convenience store chain Wawa announced a partnership with Beyond Meat to bring a plant-based breakfast option to its stores. Dubbed the Sizzli…
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Denny’s announced on its Q2 earnings call this week that average weekly sales for off-premises orders have almost doubled since the start of the pandemic, from $4,000/week in February to $7,900/week in July. Like other restaurants that have historically been known for their in-dining room experiences, Denny’s found itself having to quickly pivot when the…
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Investment in alternative protein for the first half of 2020 is almost double what it was for the whole of 2019, according to a new report by investor network FAIRR. Between January and the beginning of July of 2020, over $907 million was invested into plant-based foods, compared to $457 for the whole of 2019.…
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An unusually high volume of food tech investment news has kept us on our toes all summer, and we’re not the only ones to notice. Food tech VC firm Finistere Ventures said today that 2020 so far as been an “extraordinary” investment time for both food tech and agtech, with much of that investment happening…
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Convenience store chain 7-Eleven today announced updates to its off-premises business that include expanded delivery and an order/pay ahead feature for pickup orders placed through its 7NOW app. The new pickup feature works much like pickup at a restaurant or grocery store would. Customers log into the app and select “pickup” instead of delivery, then…
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One topic we’ve batted around ad nauseam since this pandemic started is the changing role of restaurant tech amid the shutdowns, reopenings, and the second round of closures. At this point it pretty much goes without saying that restaurants will be more digitized in the future as businesses look to minimize human-to-human contact between guests…
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In case you hadn’t heard (but you totally heard), restaurant dining rooms are closing up shop again. Whether it’s states mandating the closures (California), chains delaying their openings (McDonald’s), or some combination of those things, dining rooms are once again in peril. Since we’re all things food tech at The Spoon, the first question that…
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Biometrics in the foodservice industry tends to raise questions, but the debate over whether restaurants should use it may soon become a thing of the past. Founders Table, a restaurant group that includes Chopt and Dos Toros Taqueria, announced today it has teamed up with the CLEAR platform to test a health screening process on…
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Consumer transactions at restaurants have seen some improvement in the last couple weeks compared to the early days of the pandemic, though not much of it has gone beyond the quick-service restaurant. NPD released new data today that notes consumer transactions at major U.S. restaurant chains declined 10 percent compared to one year ago for…
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