Have you ever had the sadness facing a disappointing slice of toast when you were starving at the midnight? Have you ever excepted a miracle of a hot chip vending machine that deep fries frozen chips when you get hungry?
A Perth-based company says it is behind Australia's first commercial rollout of hot chip vending machines, which has spent more than five years developing the vending machines alongside WA potato processor Bendotti Exporters.
After inserting coins, it only takes 2 minutes and 20 seconds to deep fries frozen chips, said by the research and development business. By now, The processor and manufacturer are aiming to reduce the time to at least two minutes.
Hot Chips Company CEO Peter Malone said the company had been working on design and development of the machines for the past five years.
Mr Malone said with four of the vending machines already being trialled, the company was in the final stages of its research and development program. "It's a very sophisticated computer essentially, in a lot of ways," he said.
Relying on a robotic arm to catch the chips in a cup and then serve them up to the waiting customer is an advanced technology that used in the final design. It has only been put into the practical stage in recent years.
Bendotti and its affiliate company WA Chip will be the sole supplier to all vending machines, nationally. "If this takes off, I think it will be a big boost to the area and it will be a huge volume of potatoes that are coming out of this area," he said.
"The risk of food poisoning was minimal because potatoes are very much an inert product, I'm sure the chips could qualify for the Heart Foundation," Malone said.
The company is now set to have the machines distributed nationally by Christmas.
While the Australian vending machine is the first of its type, it is understood other machines dispense chips in countries like Belgium and Dubai.
