Keeping Food Fresh

Allard, James. Keeping Food Fresh: RFID Tracks Sushi Food Quality and Orders. HT Magazine, September 2007 http://www.htmagazine.com/HT/archive/0907/0907_07.html

In this article, the owner of Blue C Sushi, an upscale Sushi bar with locations in Seattle, Washington, discussed the dilemmas that arose using a conveyor style serving system. In the restaurant, a large conveyor belt would move the various plates of sushi around to each table, and the customers would choose whichever dish they like. Before, they were using a bar code system to keep track of each dish. Before, they were only able to track when a dish has circulated on the conveyor belt longer than the maximum allowable time. The owner wanted to find a better way to monitor what specific dishes each customer was taking and a better way to maintain quality of each individual dish. So, he decided on an RFID tracking system from Intermec, interfaced with Microsoft. This way, tags on each item are able to transmit pertinent data to a central computer and allow the owner/kitchen staff sees what they have in inventory, what items are being bought most and what items aren’t that popular. As a result of this new technology, Blue C Sushi has greatly improved its customer service, delivering guests the most popular and in demand dishes, and also able to provide fresher food. It also takes care of any possibility of error in the customer bills, since each item is tracked. The tracking system has obvious advantages to the staff as well, making them able to prepare dishes the customers are really craving.

From the previous articles I have done, I am noticing a HUGE trend in technology and hospitality, and that is the use of wireless technology. Whether it be wireless internet or the use of RFID tags in hotels and now as we see, in restaurants. It is obvious to me that RFID technology is becoming the new alternative for inventory control, not only in large retail stores like Wal-Mart, but in restaurants. There is no longer a need for physical counting and estimating to see what customers are eating and what they like, you have concrete numbers provided by an RFID tracking system. I believe this is a great idea. I have never been to a sushi bar in my life, let alone any restaurant that circulates food around on a conveyor belt. Quite truthfully, it sounds rather tacky to me, but if that’s the easiest way to serve sushi, or at least make more money off sushi, then go for it. RFID makes perfect sense especially in a restaurant like this, when you have people just grabbing things off the conveyor belt, you need something watching what they take, so they can be charged accordingly. This is the first case of RFID in a restaurant I have ever seen and think it would be difficult to integrate it into more traditional style restaurants.