On the 24th, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) inspected the operation status of unmanned cooking-type vending machines and visited restaurants that use robots to prepare food, holding a meeting with related industries.
O Yu-gyeong, Commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, is observing the chicken cooking process using a robot in a restaurant kitchen in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 24th, and receiving related explanations. [Image source=Ministry of Food and Drug Safety]
As part of the 'Food and Drug Regulatory Innovation 2.0 Task' announced in June last year, the MFDS is promoting regulatory improvement tasks that include food preparation within the current business scope of food vending machines. This visit was conducted to organize a safety management system in response to the recent increase in automatic and semi-automatic food preparation and sales businesses using robots, and to support the activation of new industries by easing entry regulations for business operators, such as allowing vending machine sales of robot-prepared food.
MFDS Commissioner Oh Yu-kyung first visited the Jukjeon Rest Area on the highway in Anyang-si, Gyeonggi Province, where she toured unmanned coffee, ramen, and cotton candy vending machines operated by robots, and listened to hygiene and safety management methods and on-site opinions from the manager. A company representative said, "If the regulatory improvement leads to the establishment of food automatic cooking and sales vending machine businesses, various automatic vending machines for cooked foods can be installed at highway rest areas, allowing users to conveniently use them even at night, and it is expected to help increase sales for business operators." Commissioner Oh requested, "Considering that no staff remain on-site in food automatic cooking and sales vending machine businesses, hygiene and safety should be managed more thoroughly."
She then visited Rn, a robot-cooked restaurant in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, toured the chicken and pasta cooking sites using robots, and listened to on-site difficulties when using robots in food stores from six companies including RoboArte Co., Ltd., XYZ Co., Ltd., Creo Korea Co., Ltd., Donggu Electronics Co., Ltd., Emart24 Co., Ltd., and Pulmuone Co., Ltd.
A company representative suggested, "Robot-cooked restaurants seem somewhat unfamiliar to consumers, causing vague concerns about food safety. If the government provides hygiene certification for robot-cooked restaurants, it could help activate the robot-related industry and support exports of related products." Commissioner Oh said, "As changes in new industries such as unmanned stores and restaurants using cooking robots are accelerating, we will reflect on-site opinions and reasonably improve regulations to provide safe food to the public and revitalize related industries."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
