 | 500Foods shared this story from  The Produce News | Today's Headlines. |
Customers at the ShopRite of Carteret, NJ, can order fresh salads with Sally the Salad Robot, which offers a contactless and individualized salad bar experience at a time when many people are looking for alternatives to traditional salad bars. Sally uses groundbreaking, advanced robotics and self-service technology to prepare and dispense made-to-order salads and healthy meals.
With a few taps of Sally’s screen, a customer can create a nutritional meal with favorite fresh ingredients that are safely protected in airtight, refrigerated containers. The fresh food robot contains 22 ingredients, including dressings, fruits, nuts, vegetables and proteins such as chicken, eggs and ham. Sally can combine two main base ingredients, up to six toppings and a dressing to make a custom salad, grain bowl or pasta salad. Sally also offers several chef-recommended recipes such as the Chicken Brown Rice Bowl or Cobb Salad, and users can view nutritional and calorie details for each ingredient. Customers can tailor that nutritional information to their own dietary needs by adding or subtracting ingredients from their order.
By partnering with the food robotics company Chowbotics to bring Sally to the ShopRite of Carteret, the store is expanding its fresh prepared foods department with the automated self-service option. Customers get a glove from a dispenser to wear as they tap the screen to order their salad before inserting a credit card for payment. The customized salad is dispensed into a bowl that customers can top off with a lid and take on the go. ShopRite is piloting the Chowbotics salad bar at the ShopRite in Carteret with hopes to roll out similar Sally salad bars at other store locations.
“We are very excited to introduce Sally to our customers,” said Jonathan D’Orsi, third-generation grocer and vice president of operations at his family’s ShopRite store in Carteret. “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, my family's ShopRite store was looking for a salad bar solution that was touchless, fresh, and innovative. The current health crisis made it even more of a priority. The ShopRite of Carteret is thrilled to partner now with Chowbotics and proud to offer Sally, our salad robot, to customers looking to create their own fresh, healthy salads.”
Chowbotics’s proprietary technology keeps ingredients fresh and sanitary in sealed and separate containers under constant, monitored refrigeration. Each of Sally’s ingredients is replenished on a regular basis and contained within the robot. The unique environment enhances food safety and helps eliminate food waste.
The technology is especially important given today’s challenges and the closing of many self-service food and salad bars in the wake of the current pandemic.
“Sally is an ideal alternative to a traditional salad bar or prepackaged vending,” said Rick Wilmer, CEO of Chowbotics. “Through ShopRite’s tremendous partnership, we’re excited to introduce Carteret shoppers to a safer self-serve experience that delivers restaurant-quality meals, while enabling custom choices for their unique preferences and dietary needs.”
