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While food trucks have become extremely popular these days, they have been around as early as the 1800's! Before the gourmet food trucks started to pop up, street vendors selling hot dogs, pretzels and lunch food for office workers have been around for decades. Now with more and more people out of work or people who want the ability to be more creative with their own food with a small budget, food trucks have become more popular.  However some cities have restrictions such as Chicago, where a food truck cannot be parked within 200 feet of a restaurant.  LA, the government limits the number of permits issued for mobile food vendors because of the street congestion it produces.  Permits are also limited because traditional restaurants don't want to compete with the low priced street vendors. 

Food Trucks no longer have to worry about internet connections, cables and loss of power. This system is on the go and perfect for them and even has a way for them to reach out to customers when they are in a slow time. If food trucks are having a slow day they can just tweet to all of their followers special deals or locations even to attract more business.

Having the iPad POS system in the food trucks is a great idea because the owners no longer have to worry about lots of hardware in the truck just to be able to take payment from customers.

Technology continues to advance in every aspect of the hospitality field even for food trucks businesses. The Revel System has released a new iPad-based restaurant POS system. This system is very convenient for food truck employees. There is no longer need to worry about the hustle and bustle of loose cables and poor router connection. As social media plays an important role in today's day and age the new POS system is equip with Twitter. Food trucks owners can send a tweet out about promotions, discounts, and their current location. This is very much an innovation for food truck businesses.

This article discusses the benefits to using new technologies to manage kitchens in hotels and/or restaurants. By using digital softwares, processes can be streamlined as information is shared more quickly across different departments and staff versus paper reports being misfiled or lost. This also ties into food sensors to better determine and manage food output and ensure not only a better quality being served to the public but less waste overall. Especially in the current climate, less food waste would not only help the bottom line but would be an added marketing tool to more eco-conscious patrons.

There are so many systems for revenue management and labor control for the F&B industry, but certainly based on my personal experience, the use technology for food temperature and cost control is an area that is still lagging behind. In most the hotels I have worked at, we still rely on monitoring the temperature of the fridges from the sensors and alarms installed in the fridges and although we use the Birchstreet system to order food and cost the recipes, the inventory and quality assurance of food once received is still done visually and with the "clipboard and paper" method which takes a lot of labor and inaccuracies. Very interesting article and reminder of where technology can come in handy. Thanks for sharing!

"Technology and innovation are what have helped, even saved, restaurants as they transform how they operate to not just survive, but thrive, in this new connected and contactless era" "Third-party food delivery apps like UberEats, Foodpanda, or Door Dash will continue to be an important solution for those not able to offer in-house ordering and delivery services" "Contactless technology is going mainstream, and it's not just about placing an order online, but also about paying with a smartphone, smartwatch or smartcard via an app or touchless device" "technology-enabled reservation systems, restaurants can manage seating, waitlists, customer loyalty and dining preferences as well as collect vital client data be it for contact tracing or market insights" "Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) are a digital menu board for kitchen staff helping restaurants streamline back-of-house operations" "companies like Winnow are helping restaurant owners and managers cut food waste and costs and run their businesses more efficiently and sustainably" "auto-scanning barcodes with smartphone cameras on posters, tables, coasters, doors or websites allows customers to access online menus, order and pay - without contact" "air purification technologies to promote 'clean air'" https://diigo.com/0lmspn

Some of these technologies such as food delivery services, and conctactless payments I have grown used to as a consumer. However, technology like KDS to improve the back of house operations or air purification technologies are more behind the scenes type of technologies that I have not given much thought so I found this article interesting.

Many restaurants are adapting to a new reality. Some of the digital trends to watch in 2022 are as follows: 1. Online ordering systems and delivery apps - Food delivery market worth more than $150 billion globally. 2. Contactless payment estimated to triple from $2 trillion to $6 trillion by 2024. 3. Online table reservation system such as Open table Experiences initiative offering unique culinary events and dinner experiences. 4. Digital kitchen boards such as KDS, a digital menu board for kitchen staff linked to the restaurant's POI which displays orders automatically and efficiently. 5. Automated inventory management software tracking food and beverage stocks, anticipating quantities and scheduling reorders. 6. QR codes that allow customers to access menus online, order and pay. 7. Air purification technology like bipolar ionization and ultraviolet light.

This article covers the how AI has played a big role in helping the food industry especially with food waste. This is through inventory control systems, monitoring and providing analysis on how the food gets to farms, predictive metrics, personal health data, and developments in machine learning.

This article captures the current and future issues we are having concerning farming, agriculture, supply and demand and so forth. AI can become a valuable asset in helping professionals in these fields work in a more efficient manner regarding to producing more from less. For instance, a drone can be a useful tool in helping farmers understand their crop's condition by taking preventive measures. Furthermore, AI can help forecast the weather and help understand environment related patterns such as floods and atmospheric conditions.

The majority of guests don't want to hear about a hotel's greening efforts around reductions in water, waste, energy and chemicals. Happily, the same is not true when it comes to food-a good story around food that's local creates a unique and memorable dining experience, and adds great value to a guest stay. Celebrating food that is local, and exposing a sense of your hotel's community, with support for local vendors and growers, is an important part of sustainability. Sharing what is unique about your community, and introducing visitors to local people, traditions and local food makes it a richer guest experience.Bringing community members together to work in collaboration can benefit both the environment, the community at large and becomes a compelling story around food for your guest. Inn by the sea green lodging certified,The goal is to preserve overly fished species, and to highlight and create demand for less expensive and underutilized seafood that is delicious and abundant.It is hoped the awareness will also benefit fishermen economically.

Diamond Foods was one of the largest snack foods corporations that were involved in an accounting fraud. This was an investigation that was going on for two years that is finally being settled. The former CEO was accused of falsifying costs in order to boost numbers on the stock market. The costs of walnuts had increased, however, former CFO was hiding that fact and misleading the market to let them believe Diamond Foods was beating earning estimates each time. Diamond Foods was acquiring Pringles but fell apart due to the scandal; this would have been a $2.5 billion deal. Talk of bankruptcy, stocks taking a nose dive, and a breach in loans made the banks take a step back, however, the company persuaded them to continue holding out for them. Diamond now has a new CEO and things are slowly starting to turn back around for the company. It's unfortunate that companies feel they have to lie, cheat and steal just to come out ahead. Some companies are getting away with it, but eventually it all goes back around.

This article talks about three new innovative trends in the online food delivery market that satisfy the highly connected consumer: Group Ordering, Multiple Platforms, and Remote Location Delivery.

This article describes how the Intercontinental Hotel Group is using artificial intelligence to reduce food waste. This technology uses smart scales, meters and cameras during food preparation.

This article introduces Revel System's new Ipad Point of Sale System designed specifically for food trucks. The system includes Revel Router, which allows customers to connect to the internet by using their iPad's built-in 3G or 4G connection. Another highlight of the system is that it intergrates with Twitter, allowing food truck owners to instantly send out location/price/sales updates to their followers. I immediately found this article to be interesting, because my research for this class will center around effective POS systems in food trucks. I feel it was an excellent move on Revel's part to create a system for this unique group. I think they really had food truck owners' best interest in mind, especially in intergrating Twitter with the system. This allows food trucks to communicate easily with their followers, and provides opportunites to boost sales and revenue. I look forward to seeing if any of the food trucks I visit are using this system.

People is getting more and more busy in this fast speed world and have fewer time to enjoy themselves. Catering is a big business in this country. "Industry data indicate there are nearly 40,000 catering businesses in the United States, not including the many restaurants that cater as well as operate one or more locations." Based on the need of socialization amount people, catering has been experienced rapid growth. The most important part and also is the most attractive part in catering is food. Now, there is a trend that people is more likely to enjoy nurturing, wholesome and down-to-earth food than before. With the globalization, Americans have a chance to taste worldwide food easily and have multiple choice. 

Its a very interesting article talking about how the catering trends are shaped by the diner's evolving taste pallet. I also found it to be interesting that the article addresses the issue of employee retention in the industry. How is hospitality technology related to this article? Besides of course the global media outlets promoting catering trends such as the Food Network.

This article goes over what food fraud is. What kinds of fraud can take place.It as well tells you how you can protect yourself against fraud in the restaurant industry.

This was an interesting article as a while back this was a subject I touched up on once when researching technology for restaurants and I actually didn't think this software technology was this old already. LeanPath pretty much is a technology to help reduce food service organizations reduce their food waste by 50%. With the UN Sustainability goal it calls in the world to reduce their food waste in half by 2030 so LeanPath has set a goal to start a program in providing free or reduced cost hardware/software to qualified resourced constrained educational and non-profit organizations to further expand in this initiative. When they first started it was software that was installed on the PC but now it is cloud based. They started to incorporate behavioral science so instead of just providing numbers and raw data they are incorporating photography to create a deeper environmental impact as one would be more self conscious seeing a pan of wasted food to relate the data than just reading a statistical number of the same result.

Many restaurants have taken step to use improved POS software. A London restaurant use interactive touch tables with digital tablecloth and e-menus. This device has a lot of functions. Customers can order the food by themselves instead of waiting for the waiters. During the time of waiting for food, customers are allowed to see the food preparation. After finish the food, customers are also separate the check by themselves. Besides, ipads are also a popular pos system to attract customers. They have the similar function with digital table cloth. The author thinks that in the next five years, this e-menu trend will grow rapidly. And the author listed five reasons. First, customers can entice by interactive suggestions and well designed screen. Second, this system is easily to share with friends. Third, restaurants can sell more wine and beer because ipads' suggestions. Fourth, customers are more likely to order food in a well presented recipe. Fifth, entertainment function will give guests impressive experience.

This article states that one of the main reasons for digital kiosks in fast food places is because of a high turnover rate. A lot of fast food places are getting less applications and a higher turnover because of the low wages they offer and little room to grow. Some have no choice but to start using these because of the lack of employees. The article states that restaurants are also starting to use this type of technology to save money on other costs they may need to put forth money towards. But some do think this doesn't mean technology will take over. Some even believe it is a way we can work together as one to make more money for the restaurants we may work in.

This article is about Virtual Restaurants, Ghost Kitchens, and the differences between the two. To be honest, I was not really familiar with either of these concepts before today, though I can see the appeal of both and why they are increasing in popularity. It's obvious that the pandemic played a large role in accelerating the popularity and significance of these kinds of services but I do not think things will slow down. It is evident that people like the ability to order a wide variety of food and get it in a timely manner while still retaining its quality. I think that ghost kitchens are a great opportunity for people to test out their restaurant concepts without committing to a long term lease, a large investment in equipment, etc. I think that it will lend to more diversity in delivery food and potentially even higher quality.

Ghost kitchens is such an interesting concept and the name just grabs you! I skimmed through this article and will definitely go back to properly read it once I have the brain capacity to do so haha. Judging from your review on it these are becoming popular and significant in our day in age.

Net Menu is a web-based software that not only manages food and beverages recipies and menus, but also provides an opportunity to view food and beverage control, waste, and profit margins.

Week 4 Article Summary 15 Benefits of Having Digital Menu Boards in Your Restaurant. This article discusses the positive ways in having a digital menus and explains the benefit it has on the restaurant. The focus of the restaurant should be more on the quality of food being served. Even though there are a lot of restaurant that give you an experience like no other but if the food is not top quality it will be hard to bring customers back. Having this type of digital menus could enhance the guest experience while helping the restaurant increase revenues. Here are ten of the top fifteen positives reasons of having a digital menu boards. 1) Digital menu displays will make communication easier. This starts form the customer directly to the kitchen. It will also allow the establishment to display videos and animations that will catch the eyes of the customers and could highlight specific menu items. 2) Saves time by easy updates on display. The software will allow the restaurant to update the menu very easy. You could add and take away dishes without having to print all new menus. It will also allow you 86 items that are sold out at any time during the shift. 3) Sound Investment of saving money. With the system allowing you to change menus, it will save money because you won't have to pay to print new menus every time you want revise it. 4) Digital displays create a more memorable experience. With having a digital screen, it will allow the customer to stay entertained by having a right mix of graphic videos and allowing them to keep them occupied during down times. 5) Better Visibility of menu. The display on the tablet will allow the guest to see a nice HD screen with colors that will make it easy to see and read. 6) 24/7 support. No matter what time of day, there will be support for mangers to trouble shoot any issues that might be happing at time. 7) Boost sales up to 21-23%. It has been said that having an emenu will increase revenues by allowing the establ

A new set of standards is coming up for credit card transactions. EMV or Europay, Mastercard, Visa, standards include a chip-and-pin device on the card that requires the card to be inserted into the card processing terminal. While this does not prevent all fraud, it's important that this standard is mandatory by 2015 and business operators should be preparing for changes.