A Jetsonian food option has been cooked up on Pierce that prepares hot food in just a few minutes.
The FOODTURE hot food vending machine—located next to the bookstore—has a fair diversity of products with a total of nine food options, ranging from pizzas to macaroni and cheese to pasta and chicken and rice.
According to their website, FOODTURE aims to provide restaurant-quality food, but their products are more comparable to food purchased in the frozen food aisle at a supermarket. While the products are not the restaurant-quality food FOODTURE claims, they are still worth a try at least once because of the variety of the food offered.
The food is prepared in a kitchen, loaded and stocked into the machine and then cooked fully after a customer makes a purchase, according to the FOODTURE website.
Only accepting payments by card—potentially excluding students who only use cash—the machine is brightly colored and has a touch screen that is easy to navigate and allows users to see the star ratings of each meal and its nutritional value.
The food takes about four minutes to prepare and an enticing aroma starts to overtake the air as the food is cooked. Once the meal is prepared, it comes out of a trapdoor on the right side of the machine. Some dishes come with wooden utensils, but additional ones can be obtained on the right side of the machine.
Consumers should be careful with the trapdoor as it crushed the edge of the tray when it was taken out and pushed back in slightly. Consumers should also be aware that the food is hot (as the reviewer learned from eating the pizza before it cooled down to a consumable temperature).
The most expensive item available at the time of the review was the Big BBQ/Detroit Barbeque Chicken Pizza priced at $12.74.
The Detroit Barbeque Chicken Pizza has a good flavor, and the most admirable aspect is the texture of the crust and the prominence of the barbecue. The toppings, while good, are not outstanding with the flavor of the chicken being mostly faint.
The Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice, priced around $9, is one of the better options, however the rice, mixed with corn and red pepper, has almost no flavor. The chicken with teriyaki sauce is delicious. Packing a slightly sweeter than savory flavor and a soft and creamy texture. The broccoli is one of the stronger ingredients in this plate, being savory, moist and soft.
The sodium content of the dishes is concerning. Each slice of the barbecue chicken pizza contains 1,140 milligrams of sodium, which is almost half of the recommended limit for adults by the FDA. The teriyaki chicken has 537 calories and 1,204 milligrams of sodium.
A high intake of sodium can increase the risk of stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Although prices are on the higher end for what is comparable to Lean Cuisine, the FOODTURE hot food vending machine is open 24 hours a day making it a viable alternative on occasion, especially for students who have night classes after the cafeteria and Brahma Cafe have closed.
