According to Research and Markets, the global food tech market is expected to exceed $250 billion by 2022. Their report executive summary shows some of the major brands you would expect and some you have probably never heard of.
Postmates
Domino’s Pizza Inc.
DoorDash Inc.
Eat24 (I mention this app in my 8 Food Apps To Chew On post)
GrubHub Inc.
Jimmy John’s Franchise LLC
McDonald’s Corporation
Panera Bread Company
Pizza Hut International
What’s Driving Smart Kitchen Food Tech Innovations?
The Spoon Blog about Smart Food Technology
The Spoon BlogSCREENSHOT OF THE SPOON BLOG (TJ MCCUE)
If you really want to dive deep into the disruptive and industry-shaking $250 billion food technology space, you will want to read The Spoon website and blog and attend the annual event they organize: Smart Kitchen Summit. The daily reporting and analysis coming out of the blog are particularly helpful for the person or team creating anything in the food tech arena. I missed the annual Smart Kitchen Summit here in Seattle a few weeks ago, but the Seattle-based company also hosted events in Dublin and Tokyo this summer. SKS was started by Michael Wolf, who heads NextMarket Insights, a research and advisory firm focused on the connected home. I first started reading his Smart Home posts here at Forbes, but he was also covering smart kitchen at that time.
The Spoon has become one of my go-to sources for food tech information. It was after testing the Instant Pot that I started looking more closely at smart food technology. The site covers a range of topics from cashier-less grocery stores to the age of the Vegan butcher shop (you read that right). Like Wolf, I am fascinated with how the intersection of food and tech are changing how we live. In big ways and small ways, Wolf and his team make it possible to see the opportunities in food tech.
For instance, new devices come and go, but some of them stick. The Instant Pot (covered last week) is one that is continuing to grow. What’s behind that? The Spoon has it covered. It was at his blog that I first read about the Rotimatic, a roti-making device on their blog (it looks quite impressive) that goes from grains to hot roti in about 90 seconds. The Rotimatic site has a counter on their site showing how many rotis have been made with their product (not sure how they do that, IoT sensor? but over 31 million have been made thus far and it climbs quickly. Terrific post, by the way, on the founder of Rotimatic was published yesterday: When This Food Robot Inventor Faced Gender Bias, She Hopped On A Motorbike.
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Just today, I was looking at a food tech robot post on the Trufflebot, (an electronic nose) to sous vide devices to the world’s first 3D food printing restaurant (I’m covering that niche in another post this week so I had to see what they had covered). So, even though, I read other research around food and tech, like the Specialty Food Association, I find myself returning to Michael Wolf and his team’s insights most often.
Food-tech startups and established companies are looking to make our kitchen time easier, faster, and, even more fun. People gather around food, including the meal prep part, of course, and it is logical to see the race to the smart kitchen as a big part of that. We tested out a Roccbox pizza oven last year and were amazed at the delicious results, but more so, it made the cooking experience interactive for even the most kitchen-averse person.
Ultimately, this ability to get people to engage with cooking and food is a big deal – since many people do not like to cook, so that’s part of why you see Blue Apron meal kits looking for ways to help you make it an enjoyable experience. Couple that with a smart toaster oven like the June or the smart pressure cooker Instant Pot – and you start to see the reason why so many entrepreneurs and big brands are going as fast as they can to the smart kitchen concept.
With the larger grocery store industry market edging toward a trillion dollars (okay, it’s just under $700 billion), and the entire food retail space at $5.32 trillion (including grocery, convenience stores, drug stores, foodservice facilities), the food tech space is still small in comparison. But not chump-change small. There are still many areas of growth and opportunity for those who appreciate the value of smart kitchen appliances.
Here’s the Research and Markets report link.
I write about new technology, often hardware, gear, and 3D tech, but sometimes mobile and the cloud. I like to help small and midsize business owners and execs figure out how to use these tools to grow their businesses. In the past, I have put pen to paper for the Wall S…