Vending machines are mostly used for selling packed items that have longer expiry date. Could you imagine a pizza coming out of a vending machine? Well, this concept was introduced in 2009 and is now up and running. This gives a chance to all the new entrepreneurs to venture in this space, as people are willing to buy that pizza which comes out of machine rather than made from human hands.
Automation in food preparation is hardly new. Even before COVID-19, the economics of the restaurant industry were grim, and savvy entrepreneurs have long sought to bring new efficiencies to the process. That led to grand experiments like Zume, an automated end-to-end pizza restaurant and delivery service that primarily used robots instead of humans. Once valued at a jaw-dropping $4 billion (!), the company recently shut down its robot-powered pizza business, laid off more than half its staff, and is shifting focus to autonomous packaging.
Piestro, which is currently raising money via crowdfunding site StartEngine, is the latest entrant. The company is producing a standalone, fully integrated cooking system and dispenser, creating an automated pizzeria that combines fresh ingredients and custom recipes to build what the company says are high-quality pizzas. As take away, delivery and quick access to food are more in demand than ever, a pizza kiosk suddenly seems like a realistic proposition.
Piestro is not the only game in town. A company called Basil Street recently raised $10 million for its pizza vending machine and another, API Tech, has is already operating hundreds of pizza kiosks across Europe
The machine makes every pizza from scratch, and does not begin making it until you order it. The process that these machines follow is as follows
-The machine makes fresh dough from scratch by combining mineral water with a flour mixture.
-The machine then kneads the mixture into dough, and flattens it into a pizza base.
-The pizza is then topped with organic tomato sauce via a mechanical arm.
-This mechanical arm now tops the pizza with cheese and any additional desired toppings.
-Each machine has 3-4 topping choices, such as : pepperoni, bacon, mushroom, etc.
-The pizza is finally placed in a 700-degree infra-red oven. (There is even a viewing window so you can watch your pizza bake!)
-This ENTIRE process takes under 5 minutes
A similar company operates in India named Yess Pizza. It has created a Pizzavolution in the food industry by launching for the first time in India an Anytime Pizza Kiosk (ATP). A fully automated plug & play machine that delivers freshly baked pizzas in a matter of 5 minutes. All the consumer has to do is Pay & Insert Token – Select topping – Enjoy delicious Pizza. Its thin-crust base is freshly made from dough in the machine itself. It also offers the consumers to view the entire baking process through transparent windows of the machine.
With the pandemic setting in we can safely say that this industry would take a boom in near future because of the ever-growing demand for safely cooked fresh pizza.
