Foodservice

Vollrath debuts touchless, self-serve salad bar

Image provided by the Vollrath Co.

June 6, 2023

The Vollrath Co., a manufacturer of foodservice equipment, introduced the SerVue, a touchless, refrigerated, self-serve salad bar that uses sensors to automatically dispense the desired amount of food from canisters, according to a press release.

The system replaces the open-air design of a traditional salad bar.

"It gives customers a completely new, exciting and safe way to serve themselves at a salad bar and makes checking and refilling ingredients a breeze for the operator," Brian Hedlund, senior vice president of foodservice for Vollrath, said in the press release.

Sensors at the bottom of each canister detect the presence of a bowl or plate and dispense ingredients accordingly. The functionality can be dialed in to provide the precise amount of each ingredient.

Customer facing double glass doors house eight transparent ingredient canisters.

The refrigerated unit maintains temperature better than a typical drop-in or serving line and guarantees optimal product freshness. Ingredients are self-contained and protected from germs and other contaminants, so there is no need for serving utensils or breath guards.

Operator benefits include:

• Dialed in dispense control saves food portions and costs.
• Precise temperature control guarantees optimal product freshness.
• No cross-contamination of ingredients.
• At a glance ingredient monitoring.
• Easy refills and cleaning.

Customer benefits include:

• No navigating around a breath guard or extended reaching to get to ingredients in the back of the unit.
• Touchless operation eliminates having to handle serving utensils.
• Food protected from germs and other contaminants.
• No cross-contamination of ingredients.