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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Swedish Grocery Delivery Service Vembla Raises 6M SEK

Delivery & Commerce

Vembla, a Swedish delivery service for groceries and other goods, told The Spoon via email today that it has raised 6 million Swedish Krona (~$704,000 USD) from angel investors including Tuomas Kukkonen (FMCG entrepreneur in Finland), Michael Wolf (ex CEO of Swedbank), Manfred Aronsson (ex. CEO Discovery Networks).

Similar to Instacart here in the U.S., Vembla is an app that partners with local grocery stores in Sweden. Customers shop at stores on the Vembla app, while Vembla “shoppers” go in and pick up the order and deliver it. The startup promises to deliver orders in an hour.

According to the press announcement that Vembla sent, online grocery shopping in Sweden hit 5 percent of total sales in 2020, up from 2 percent in 2019. That growth is projected to continue to hit nearly 7 percent of total sales in 2022 (Source: Industry reports, DI, Nordea).

We aren’t that well versed in the Scandinavian grocery market, but it stands to reason that the COVID-19 pandemic would have a similar effect in Sweden as it has here in the U.S. Even though Sweden has been more lax in its approach to tackling the virus.

Domestically, the pandemic pushed online grocery shopping to record heights this year. Over the next five years, online grocery shopping is projected to take up 21.5 percent of all grocery sales in the U.S.

The bigger question for pure delivery plays like Vembla and Instacart is how long retailers will rely on them. Right now, third-party delivery services can help with the crush of new customers. But over the long haul, will retailers want to keep handing over the customer relationship to an outside delivery service, or do more investment to bring delivery in-house?

Farmer’s Fridge Adds Contactless Ordering and Payment

Delivery & Commerce

Farmer’s Fridge vending machines have always had a lot of things people were looking for: 24 hour access, a creative menu, and fresh salads served in cute jars. But the one thing Farmer’s Fridge didn’t offer was contactless ordering and payment, features made more important by the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers still needed to touch the machine to place there order and make a payment.

Until recently, that is. I spoke with Farmer’s Fridge CTO, Candice Savino, this week, who told me that the company rolled out contactless reserve and pay functionality to its machines at the end of August.

Like so many other players in the vending machine space, the addition of contactless ordering was on Farmer’s Fridge’s roadmap but was bumped to the head of the feature queue when the pandemic hit. Savino’s team worked quickly, creating an early prototype in May and rolling out the finished product in August to 160 of its 200 machines that are still active (prior to the pandemic, Farmer’s Fridge had 700 machines active in places like office buildings and convention centers).

Farmer’s Fridge contactless ordering works through the company’s mobile app. In the app, the user selects the machine it wants to order from, places the order and pays. That machine then holds the food until the person arrives and punches in a special code generated by the Farmer’s Fridge app.

Savino said the solution allows the company to actually have more accurate inventory management across its entire fleet of machines because it moves stocking data from the edge to a centralized location in the cloud. There are also safeguards in place to prevent remote dispensing, say if you accidentally went to one machine but had ordered from a different machine across town. (If that is the case, the user cancels and re-orders.)

Savino said that adoption of the new ordering system has been good, with 20 percent of Farmer’s Fridge orders going through the mobile app and growing week over week.

With the pandemic still raging, it’s a safe bet that all vending services will adopt contactless ordering and payment going forward. Chowbotics, which makes Sally the robot salad maker, added contactless ordering at the end of last month, and Blendid, which makes a robot smoothie kiosk, has always featured contactless ordering and payment.

Farmer’s Fridge is definitely in touch with the times, especially when it comes to removing touch from its retail experience.

DoorDash to Pay $2.5M to Settle Lawsuit Over Former Tipping Policies

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

DoorDash will pay a $2.5 million settlement to the Washington, D.C. attorney general’s office over a lawsuit filed in 2019 about the delivery service’s controversial tipping policies. Attorney General Karl Racine announced yesterday that DoorDash has agreed to the settlement “to resolve allegations that it mislead D.C. consumers and used tips left for workers to boost the company’s bottom line.”

Racine filed the suit in November of 2019, not long after DoorDash changed its much-maligned tipping policy where it used workers’ tips to contribute to their base pay. The lawsuit alleged that “the only thing the consumer’s tip changed was DoorDash’s share of the worker’s pay.” Most of the buying public, meanwhile, had no idea their tip money was going towards, well, not tips. Racine sought to recover millions in that tip money.

Which he has. According to the press release from the attorney general’s office, DoorDash will pay $1.5 million in relief to delivery workers in D.C., $750,000 to the District, and donate $250,000 to District charities. DoorDash will also “be required to maintain a payment model that ensures all tips go to workers without lowering their base pay” and provide transparency around its payment policies.

“Today’s settlement rights a wrong that deceived D.C. consumers and deprived workers of monies that they should have been paid,” said AG Racine.

Color me cynical, but it doesn’t feel like as much of a victory as it might have even few months ago. It’s great workers are getting some of those tips back that were originally put towards their base pay. But $2.5 million ain’t a lot of dough when you consider that DoorDash (along with other gig economy companies) bankrolled Prop 22 for $200 million, the most expensive ballot measure in California’s history. It passed, meaning DoorDash drivers will remain independent contractors and the company is not on the hook to give its workers minimum wage, paid sick leave, and health care. 

In other words, the Prop 22 saga showed us that gig economy companies will pay hundreds of millions to effectively not take care of the folks on whose backs these businesses are built. DoorDash may have changed its tipping policy, but I doubt a $2.5 million settlement will motivate the company to further alter its approach to handling its workforce anytime soon. 

The settlement also comes just a couple weeks after DoorDash filed for its IPO. In that filing, DoorDash said that if it fails “to cost-effectively attract and retain Dashers,” the company’s business, operations, and financials could be “adversely affected.” Having an open lawsuit about a worker-treatment issue would have been counterproductive to that point, so the timing of the settlement isn’t likely coincidental. DoorDash said in its filing that it has over 1 million Dashers across all its markets. Attracting and retaining them is a key part of the company’s growth strategy — so long as it doesn’t chomp away at DoorDash’s profitability.

Change Foods Raises $875,000 for Its Precision Fermentation Cheese

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce, Foodtech

Alternative protein company Change Foods has raised $875,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed round of funding, surpassing its initial target of $600,000. Green Queen Media was first to break the news. Participating in the round were Twitter’s Asia-Pacific VP Maya Hari, abillionveg founder Vikas Garg, game developer Tom Crago, and existing investors Newstead and Klar. 

Change Foods plans to use the funds to scale up its precision fermentation technology, which the company is using to develop an initial prototype of an animal-free cheese it says will look, taste, and cook like dairy-based cheese.

Most alt-cheese products currently available still fall well below the bar in terms of replicating the real thing in terms of taste, texture, and functionality. That’s largely because those products don’t contain the casein compound, which is found in cow’s milk and is an essential ingredient of cheese. To get that compound and others, Change Foods genetically modifies microorganisms and ferments them with sugar in a process known as precision fermentation. 

Speaking to Green Queen, Change Foods founder David Bucca said better precision fermentation technology could lead to a less vulnerable dairy supply chain, since products can be made locally, have a longer shelf life, and don’t require cold chain infrastructure to transport. 

Fermentation has been called “the next pillar” of alternative protein alongside plant-based and cell-based proteins. Precision fermentation is one method within that larger fermentation category, and is also used by companies like Perfect Day and Impossible Foods. 

To start, Change Foods is developing mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, though it plans to branch out into other dairy products in the future. The plan is to sell products via B2C channels by 2023. 

In the meantime, Change Foods will also use some of the pre-seed funding to expand its core team. It also has ambitions to raise a $4 million seed round in 2021.

Plan, Store, Redistribute: Tech Tools to Keep Your Thanksgiving Leftovers Out of the Landfill

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

Roughly 200 million pounds of turkey in the U.S. gets tossed out annually after Thanksgiving. And though dinners might be smaller this year, since massive family gatherings are a no-no, it’s inevitable that a lot of food is going to get wasted. That’s a tough fact to digest, given the long lines at food banks this year because of the economic consequences of the pandemic, to say nothing of food waste’s impact on the environment.

Much of food waste happens because it’s built into our food system, and fighting the problem at scale will require a massive effort from governments, businesses, and consumers alike. But you can still play your part during the 2020 holidays by taking steps to address your food waste or, better yet, prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are some useful tech tools that may come in handy.

Plan It. 

Thorough meal planning that actually reduces food waste goes beyond deciding which side dishes to serve with the bird. The first step is to “think beyond the recipe,” as NRDC puts it. If you’re buying onions to add to a stuffing dish, research recipes that also call for onions you could make in the days following the holiday. Ditto for something like parsley, which few folks tend to eat in bulk. Also scan the pantry before you ever set foot in a grocery store (or open a grocery app) to see what you already have, so you don’t buy repeats of, say, baking soda.

Fortunately, there are a lot of apps and online tools out there nowadays that can help consumers with this planning. While we at The Spoon have mixed feelings about these apps (most still require quite a bit of manual inventory entry), they can at the very least make the food planning and buying process more organized. 

For example, Meal Prep Mate, made by the Save the Food Campaign, has a bunch of planning features, including a calculator that estimates how much food you need based on your guest list, a tool to help you create your shopping list, and a recipe guide. Similarly, the Meal Hero app, from the Kraft-Heinz Evolv group, includes an interactive shopping list feature the app generates based on the recipes you give it and can even arrange to get your groceries delivered via AmazonFresh and Instacart. No Waste’s app, which also helps users create meal plans and shopping lists comes with a built-in food waste tracker and can be shared across multiple users — a bonus if there are multiple cooks in the kitchen.

As mentioned above, the big downside to most meal planning apps right now is that they can’t automatically scan your fridge or pantry to tell you what you already have; the user has to manually input that information. No, that’s not a real problem to have compared to everything else going on this year, but it is something to think about as you choose your food waste tools for the holidays.

Store It.

My crystal ball tells me that despite planning, a lot of us will still wind up with leftover food come Thursday night. If you plan to store it, place the food in clear containers marked with the contents inside and the date you first stored them. The USDA notes that doing this “can increase the chances that the leftovers in the fridge will be remembered and actually eaten.”

There are some options for smart food storage systems available that can simplify the process of keeping leftovers and remind you when food is about to go bad. A company called Lasting Freshness uses a vacuum-seal container system and is available in the lower 48. At the moment, though, systems from the likes of Ovie and Silo are still only available for pre-order. 

For tips on how to best store certain types of food, check Save The Food’s comprehensive guide on the topic.

Redistribute It. 

You could also donate leftover ingredients to those in need. A food-sharing app such as OLIO lets neighbors and communities share excess food. Users can list pretty much anything that is edible, such as a leftover carton of eggs or an extra loaf of bread. For restaurants and grocery stores, apps like Too Good To Go and Imperfect Foods offer a way to donate excess ingredients that are then sold to customers at a discount price. 

At the moment, those apps have no options for the average U.S. household to donate excess food. They do, however, let you order a box of “imperfect” groceries, which means you could craft a Thanksgiving meal out of rescued food items and contribute to the food redistribution concept in that way. Imperfect Foods, for example, lets you pick groceries online and get them delivered to your doorstep.

Report: Restaurant Tech Company Toast Is Now Valued at $8B, Could IPO in 2021

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

Months after laying off half its staff, Toast has reached an $8 billion valuation, according to a new report from CNBC.

That new valuation, up from $4.9 billion in February of this year, is the result of a secondary sale Toast closed out last week. Through that deal, both current and former employees could sell up to 25 percent of their vested shares for $75 each. Toast said the deal was for up to 800,000 shares, totaling $60 million. 

It’s a big change from April, when the company cut 50 percent of its staff. In a letter to employees, CEO Chris Comparato said the layoffs were in response to “massive disruption” caused by COVID-19 that “hit the industry virtually overnight.” The move also called into question the value of restaurant tech in general, which runs the gamut in terms of providing businesses with products that deliver on ROI and those that are, as a friend of mine likes to say, solutions in search of problems. 

Toast has sat squarely in the middle of those two extremes for a long time. Once offering just a humble POS system, the company has over the years  added payroll and team management, email marketing capabilities, and a massive list of third-party integrations. There were plenty of valuable uses for the Toast ecosystem, but that seemed to be part of the problem, too. One glance at the company’s sight shows how easily overwhelmed a restaurant owner or manager could get by the number of available options. 

Toast, however, seemed to grasp the idea that too many bells and whistles can be no good thing, and more recently (since the pandemic hit), the company’s new features have been focused on the most important area of the restaurant biz right now: making off-premises orders more efficient, faster, and of better quality. The company released a platform to process delivery orders in April. It has since also launched a “contactless” suite of products for ordering and payments. Nowadays, a restaurant could easily run an entire off-premises business using Toast’s platform. With more restaurants than ever adopting digital ordering and off-premises channels like drive-thru, curbside, and ghost kitchens, Toast’s recent focus on the to-go world could wind up being very fruitful for the company. Hence the $8 billion valuation.

CNBC noted that Toast’s rebound “has been so rapid” that investors on the secondary market have recently put in bids above the $8 billion valuation. People familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC also said the company “is viewed as a potential 2021 IPO candidate.”  

Zippin Cashierless Convenience Store Now Open in Mile High Stadium

Delivery & Commerce, Robotics, AI & Data

Back when they were open and operating at full capacity, stadiums were an excellent way to get a glimpse at the future of food tech. The high-volume, high-speed nature of eating at sporting events and monster truck rallies lent itself to things like robots, AI for line management and mobile ordering.

While the pandemic shut stadiums, arenas and civic centers down for most of the year, some, like Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado have re-opened, albeit cautiously. Only 5,000 fans can spread out across Mile High’s 76,125 seats for Broncos games. And though the crowd size may be diminished, that isn’t stopping Mile High from going high-tech with its approach to concessions.

Earlier this, foodservice operator Aramark tapped Zippin to transform the Mile High’s Drink MKT store into a cashierless checkout experience. Zippin’s technology, which includes cameras and shelf sensors as well as computer vision and AI, allow shoppers to tap their credit card as they walk into the store, grab what they want and leave. Upon exit, customers get charged automatically and receive an itemized receipt. The new Drink MKT opened at the end of September this year.

Not only is the Zippin-powered store contactless, Zippin CEO, Krishna Motukuri told me by phone this week that the entire transaction process is faster. Between grabbing what you want, standing in line and checking out with a cashier, the traditional retail transaction can takes minutes. With Zippin cashierless checkout, Motokuri said “We were able to show that most of the customers checked in, picked their stuff walked out in 45 seconds.”

Mile High Stadium is the second sports venue to house a Zippin convenience store. In September of last year the startup opened one in the Golden 1 Center arena in Sacramento.

For its part, Mile High Stadium is no stranger to high-tech concessions. Last year the stadium used a robot to pour out Bud Lights to thirsty fans.

Motukuri told me that his company has seen an influx of interest from stadiums and office buildings as they look to create more contactless retail experiences when they re-open. For example, office buildings want to replace cafeterias with contactless grab-and-go food options. It will face competition there from Amazon, which has also openly explored the idea of putting small Go stores in offices.

How many more stadiums Zippin builds in is dependent upon how soon those buildings open up. The pandemic is still going strong, but there is a potential light at the end of the tunnel with the forthcoming arrival of vaccines. That said, even when the virus recedes, fans will probably still be a little gun shy about congregating in stores for a long time just to grab a Gatorade, so cashierless checkout could be the big winner at the big games.

The 2020 Kitchen Gift Guide: Bonbowl, BEERMKR, PantryChic and More

Connected Kitchen

There hasn’t been much cause to celebrate during this past year, but maybe the holidays can bring with it a little retail therapy.

If you’re looking to give (or get) the best kitchen gear, than look no further than this list that we’ve put together for you!

JENN

Bonbowl ($149)

My colleagues can attest to the fact that I won’t shut up about the Bonbowl, so it’s only fitting it lands somewhere in this gift guide. As food tech gadgets go, the device is ridiculously simple: it’s an induction cooktop the size of a stove burner and an accompanying bowl you can both cook in and eat from. But you can get a lot of uses out of this simple setup. Since purchasing mine a few months ago, I’ve made single-serving soups and pastas, scrambled eggs, reheated countless leftovers, and made rice krispie treats. Sometimes I use it as a fifth burner for heating sauces when cooking a big meal. Obvious recipients of this device would be a college student (if they ever get to go back to the dorms). That said, I’d buy it for just about anyone who regularly needs to throw a quick meal for one together and hates washing dishes.

Imperfect Foods Gift Box ($24.99)

Fight food waste through holiday gifting. That’s the credo behind online grocer Imperfect Foods’ new holiday snack box. Each box contains a mix of snacks made from “rescued” food — that is, foods that would have otherwise gotten chucked out of the grocery store because of cosmetic imperfections. Some of the included snacks are dried mango considered too “sunburnt” to sell, peppermint- and dark chocolate-covered pretzels that broke into pieces during production, and surplus seasonings. Imperfect Foods says each box saves about nine pounds of food from going to waste. It’s also just a fun way to get your loved ones alert to the world’s 1.3 billion-ton food waste problem. Finally and most importantly, proceeds from the boxes go to Feeding America.

The Personal Rise Garden ($279)

While we’re on the subject of kitchen tech for small spaces, The Personal Rise Garden, a countertop version of Rise Garden’s automated smart farm, just launched and will ship in time for the holidays. Like Rise’s other indoor farms, this one is meant to be used in the average person’s home and doesn’t require agricultural experience or even tech savviness. The accompanying app does most of the work: it calculates temperature, manages the nutrient levels of plants and alerts the user when it’s time to water the garden. The price point is a little high for the average holiday gift, but if you have a loved one who’s a leafy greens devotee and is tired of having to haul ass to the grocery store every other day in the midst of a pandemic, this might be a good investment.

CHRIS

BEERMKR ($499)
I have a full review of the BEERMKR system coming out soon, but here’s all you need to know. I have never attempted to brew beer before. With the BEERMKR, though, I was able to make what is, according to everyone I’ve shared it with, a delicious stout on my first try. BEERMKR’s unique system is simple enough that a N00b like me can use it, but open ended enough that a pro can customize their brew however they like. What’s nice is that it doesn’t require buckets and hoses and bottles, and it doesn’t take a bunch of your time and attention. It just works and is perfect for the BEERLVR in your life.

Photo: Crowd Cow website.

CrowdCow Gift Certificate ($25 – $250)
When the pandemic first hit and we weren’t sure how safe it was to go to grocery stores, I immediately started buying meats through CrowdCow’s online marketplace. It’s been eight months and I’m still buying fish and chicken from CrowdCow’s small farms and fisheries. The service is fast and the quality is top-notch. I highly recommend the halibut!

Philips 3200 LatteGo Superautomatic Espresso Machine ($799)
Look. I’m sorry that I’ve put two very pricey items on my gift guide here. Really. But if you are able to swing it, this superautomatic coffee machine is worth every penny. I saved up and got one for my wife for her birthday+mother’s day towards the beginning of the pandemic. My reasoning? If we’re going to be stuck on lockdown, she may as well start each (Groundhog) day with a delicious cup of coffee. This machine grinds and brews (excellent!) espressos, cappuccinos and straight-up coffee. Plus, the LatteGo system is a super-easy, hose-free way of steaming your choice of milk. And yes, it’s expensive, but given how often it gets used in our house, the cost comes out to about $3.60 a day, which is less than getting a Starbucks latte everyday. And given that this pandemic won’t be over anytime soon, that cost per day will continue to drop.

MIKE

Misen Carbon Steel Pans ($55)

Like many, In recent years I’ve started to move away from chemical heavy non-stick surfaces and rely more heavily on things like my Lodge cast iron skillet. The only problem is the thing weighs more than Thor’s hammer and requires an oven mitt to move around once hot. Enter carbon steel. Carbon steel has been one of those pro kitchen secrets that has started to make its way into the consumer kitchen, and now it’s one of the fastest growing categories for consumer cookware. The growing popularity is due in part because carbon steel offers most of the same benefits of cast iron (durability, high heat tolerance) without its downsides. So when Misen, which got its start as an Instagram purveyor of knives, recently launched their line of carbon steel and I picked up the 10 and 12” bundle. They work great. You still need to season them, but if you or your loved one is looking for a new set of go-to pans, I’d try them out. 

The PantryChic Smart Storage System ($350)

Do you have a hyper organized type on your gift list who wears out their label maker organizing everything into little containers and bins? You might want to consider buying them the PantryChic smart storage system. Sure, the system allows you to store food into interchangeable bins and then dispense using exact measurements with the built-in scale, the container system is BPA-free and airtight, and it all works with the Chefling smart kitchen app to manage food inventory. But you can also feel good buying the product from a founder who has worked long and hard to get the product to market: PantryChic was invented by Nicole Lee who, together with her husband, showed off a prototype at the first Smart Kitchen Summit back in 2015. After half a decade of persistence, they finally started shipping the product last month. You can find the on  PantryChic’s website or on Amazon.  

Stasher Bags

Like everyone else, I’m cooking more at home during the pandemic, and that has meant firing up my sous vide circulator at least once or twice a week. While many are still using plastic bags – either in the form of Ziploc or vacuum seal bags – a couple years ago I started using reusable silicon bags for all of my sous vide. The category got its start when Kat Nouri launched Stasher bags back in 2016 and a couple years later got an investment by Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. The bags aren’t cheap – the half gallon bag (which I use) costs $20 – but you won’t have to keep buying Ziplocs or a vacuum sealer and don’t have to feel bad about putting more plastic into the waste stream. If you’re just getting started or buying for a sous vide fanatic in your family, start at least with a half-gallon or go up to the stand up mega bag, which holds almost up to a gallon. 

Survey: More Than Half of Restaurant Sales Will be Digital by 2025

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

Digital sales will make up more than half, or 54 percent, of all quick-service and limited-service restaurant sales by 2025, according to new survey numbers from market research firm Incisiv. That’s 70 percent higher than pre-COVID estimates, the firm notes.

That projected growth isn’t hard to understand. It’s been an all-out dumpster-fire of a year for restaurants, with hundreds of thousands of restaurants permanently shuttered and billions of dollars already lost. Currently, restaurants across the country are reverting to off-premises-only models, which lend themselves more to minimal interactions between restaurant staff and customers.

But as we saw early on in the pandemic, even limited/quick service restaurants struggled to manage the sudden influx of takeout, curbside pickup, drive-thru, and delivery order channels. Bigger brands with money to burn and existing digital strategies have obviously fared better over the last eight months than those without many tech investments in place. As of July, Chipotle had increased its digital sales by over 200 percent thanks to the brand’s pre-COVID focus in that area. Another example is Starbucks, which as publicly said 80 percent of its orders before the pandemic were already for to-go channels.

Separately, Incisiv notes that while restaurant chains are making investments in tech, they are “not necessarily addressing the highest priorities nor the solutions that will deliver the best maximum ROI across diverse customer expectations.”

It’s a point we make all the time here at The Spoon. There are seemingly endless options for businesses when it comes to tech, but they’re not all equal in terms of the value they provide to a businesses trying to serve customers quickly, safely, and with the same quality they would get in the dining room. For example, the so-called “contactless” kits that address the in-dining room experience may become a staple of the future, but they can’t exactly add value when dining rooms are shut down. On the other hand, focusing tech investments on tools that will make digital ordering and fulfillment easier and cheaper should be a priority. To that end, Incisiv’s report urges restaurants to “make enhancements in digital tech.” Those that do, according to the report, “will be better positioned should another shutdown occur.” Which, if you hadn’t noticed, is happening as we speak.

As noted above some of the bigger QSR brands are clearly leading the charge when it comes to digital sales trends, but Incisiv says there is plenty of area for both growth and improvement. Customer satisfaction actually remains low in a few key areas. Only 40 percent of survey respondents were satisified with their pickup experience; that number drops to 25 percent for delivery. Half of guests prefer paying with a mobile wallet, but fewer than 20 percent of QSRs provide expanded payment options.

The survey found that “close to 70 percent” of restaurant chains have “stated their intent” to increase investments in mobile ordering. Over the long term, digital sales are expected to dip slightly once in-dining room service is resumed with some semblance of its former days. However, the return of the dining room won’t mean the end of off-premises, not if recent developments around condensed store formats and expanded drive-thru lanes are any indication. Incisiv also notes that share of delivery sales is expected to grow 23 percent by 2025 versus a pre-COVID forecast of 15 percent.

As the report notes, if all of this holds true, it will be QSR chains making the most progress in terms of digital ordering and setting the example for the rest of the industry. 

With Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles, KFC’s International Brands Keep Pushing Us Into the Future

Delivery & Commerce, Robotics, AI & Data

As with many posts we write about on The Spoon, there is the news and then there is the story.

The news rumbling across Twitter and as reported by Cnet’s Roadshow is that KFC-branded self-driving vehicles were spotted on the road in China bringing fried chicken to people outside. Roadshow reports that this “restaurant on wheels” looks like it’s a partnership between Yum Brands (which owns KFC) and a Chinese company called Neolix (though neither company confirmed that news). From Roadshow’s story:

As for how the little food pods work, it looks like customers make a selection via screens and pay via a QR code and then a door opens to reveal their order. It’s not clear what stops someone from taking more than what they ordered, but surely there’s some sort of system for that. There isn’t anyone inside preparing food as it happens.

Keeping people from taking food that isn’t theirs probably isn’t too big of an issue. This could be addressed either through cameras and computer vision or shelf sensors or both. If a person took more than they had ordered, they would probably just get charged more.

So the news is that China has self-driving cars acting as mobile restaurants. That’s cool. But the bigger story here is what the heck is going on with the international KFC brands? This rolling chicken stand is just the latest example of the company bringing its food into a sci-fi-style future. Consider other moves that KFC has done abroad:

  • A KFC in Moscow is using a system of conveyor belts and an articulating arm to shuttle food from the kitchen into a locker from which customers pick up their order.
  • In July, KFC Russia announced that it was “launching the development of innovative 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken meat in cooperation with the 3D Bioprinting Solutions research laboratory.”
  • Last month, KFC in Korea partnered with Hyundai to develop chicken frying robots.

I realize the grass is always greener on the other side, but it seems like the only thing KFC in the U.S. is working is… a better drive-thru (womp womp). I mean, that’s important, but come on! Where are our robots?

HelloFresh Buys Prepared Meal Delivery Service Factor75 for $277M

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

Meal kit company HelloFresh announced today that it is acquiring prepared meal delivery service Factor75. The deal is being done through Berlin-based HelloFresh’s U.S. subsidiaries and has the company paying up to $277 million in cash (up to $100 million is in the form of an earn-out and management incentives) for Factor75.

Factor75’s revenue is projected to reach $100 million for the full year 2020. HelloFresh is using the acquisition to expand its presence and market reach here in the U.S. Through the Factor75 purchase, HelloFresh will gain a Chicago office along with four production and fulfillment facilities. There is also a forthcoming facility that, according to the press announcement, will provide enough capacity to deliver more than $500 million worth of prepared meals annually.

This the second big acquisition of a prepared meal delivery service is as many months. At the end of October, Nestlé acquired Freshly in a deal that valued Freshly at $950 million (actual purchase price and deal structure details were not disclosed).

Both these acquisitions come against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has more people eating at home. Prepared meal kit companies like Factor75 and Freshly offer a convenient way to mix up home dining because meals are already cooked and just need to be re-heated. There’s no extensive preparation or lengthy cooking times like there is with traditional meal kits that just send ingredients.

Given that there are now three promising COVID vaccines on the horizon, one has to wonder if Factor75 is exiting at the right time. Obviously there is still a mountain of regulatory and logistical work that needs to be done before any vaccine becomes widely available. But if vaccines start to roll out over the next six to 12 months and consumers feel more free to venture out to restaurants and grocery stores whenever they want, will consumers still have an appetite for meal kits and prepared meal services?

Shiok Meats Unveils Prototype for Cell-Based Lobster

Business of Food, Foodtech

At a recent exclusive tasting event, Singapore-based Shiok Meats unveiled a prototype for cell-based lobster, according to FoodNavigator-Asia, who attended the event. The prototype was unveiled at the event as part of two dishes, a lobster gazpacho and lobster terrine.

Shiok said the lobster is cultivated with the same technology the company uses it make its cell-based shrimp. Shiok takes a sample of lobster cells, which are then grown in a bioreactor and harvested several weeks later. Right now, it takes between four and six weeks for Shiok to produce its cell-based shrimp; the company says the lobster takes a couple weeks longer than that. It is also more expensive to produce, though the company is looking to bring the cost down to $50/kg at some point in the future.

Neither the shrimp nor the lobster are available for sale to consumers right now. The company plans to have its Shiok Shrimp product commercially available by 2022. A manufacturing plant in Singapore is slated to be operational at that time, too. Shiok raised a $12.6 million Series A round in September of this year, part of which will go towards building out the production facility. FoodNavigator reported that once that plant is up and running, Shiok will be able to get regulatory approval to sell its products, which it will initially do in restaurants and other B2B settings.

No cell-based meat or seafood is currently available for commercial sale, though plenty of companies are moving towards that future. The list includes BlueNalu, a company that also makes cell-based seafoods and is currently expanding its production facility, which the company plans to open in the next five years. And plenty of investment is currently happening in the cell-based meat sector, with Mosa Meat, Integriculture, Meat-Tech 3D, and others all raising funding in the last six months.

However, being able to sell these products to mainstream consumers and at scale will be a much longer process, one that could take up to 15 years, by some accounts. Costs must first come down, and companies must get regulatory approval before they can even sell their products to restaurants.

For its part, Shiok will keep innovating on various cell-based seafoods in the meantime. In addition to shrimp and lobster, the company plans to introduce a cell-based crap prototype in a few months.