HOT FOOD VENDING What’s cooking in vending?
Vended hot food is still fairly rare across the country, partly due to the unique challenges involved in delivering the product to health and safety requirements. However, it’s been shown that consumers like the idea of it, so it’s up to the industry to find ways to meet the demand.
One of the strongest demands is coming from the NHS, as there has been increasing focus on the need to satisfy the mandatory health & wellbeing CQUIN 1b by providing a healthy hot food service for doctors, nurses and visitors outside of conventional catering hours. But apart from hospitals, there is further demand for after-hours catering at universities, large office environments and hotels which have already been proven to be successful locations for hot food vending machines. Meanwhile manufacturers of smart machines have also spotted opportunities in shopping centres, petrol stations, supermarkets and even small towns or villages which don’t have access to restaurants or home deliveries.
HOT IN HOSPITALS In hospitals night staff, or even visitors, often have no access to healthy food because the canteen or restaurant is closed. In fact, one in three NHS Trusts don’t offer healthy food options in the evenings. In an effort to address this, the NHS
mandatory health & wellbeing CQUIN 1b requires hospitals to provide a healthy hot food service outside conventional catering hours. This would make it easier for NHS staff to make choices to support their health and wellbeing. And it bodes well for companies like Bon Appetit, that provide an effectively cost-free solution to the hospitals which are able to collect a financial incentive for satisfying CQUIN 1b. Currently, Bon Appetit’s service is operating
in over 50 NHS hospitals, which includes names such as Guy’s & St Thomas’s Hospitals in London, the John Radcliffe in Oxford, Harrogate District Hospital, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Princess Royal University Hospital. Managing director Keith Pordum said: “The
key is the food. The demand is for high quality, healthier, tasty food, which is quick to
prepare. Our menu offers a choice of 39 high quality branded products, with 85% of the food selections being healthier choices.”
HOT AND HEALTHY One of the biggest hurdles to delivering hot vended food is undoubtedly the health and safety issues which come into play with un- manned food preparation. But this challenge played into the hands of
Mr Lee’s Pure Foods when it first introduced its Noodle Kiosks into the UK and discovered the market was “virtually barren of competition”. According to CTO of Mr Lee’s Pure Foods
Martin Verspeak: “It isn’t very often you come across a sector so stale and under-loved that the opportunity could be entirely yours to own, but when we first set aim on hot healthy food vending, it was exactly what we saw in front of us.” “When it comes to heated vendable foods,
it has always been the heating element that has been the biggest issue, as the health and safety surrounding un-manned food preparation is a tricky one to navigate. “We have been fortunate enough to start with a product which by nature is easy to
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