Healthy vending choices have been becoming more and more popular over recent years as consumers and organizations demand more nutritious food selections in public places, offices and schools. A banana farmer from Australia has finally seen his vending dream come to fruition as he recently launched his first banana vending machine, giving consumers a fresh alternative to traditional vending snacks.
The bananas are sold in packs of three or five for a few dollars per bundle. The bananas are wrapped in plastic to preserve their freshness and the machine is loaded with fresh, ripe bananas daily. Initially, technology was keeping this idea from ripening into a full-fledged snack vending machine business. The temperature control technology wasn’t quite right for fresh fruit according to Daneil MacKay, the banana farmer behind these machines.
Another obstacle was the irregular shape of bananas, specifically their bend. The varying size and shape of fresh bananas made fitting them all into uniform vending mechanisms difficult. To work around this problem, Mr. MacKay was able to invent his own banana called the Smart Banana that grow in a consistent size and shape.
Finally, the issue of finding a vending mechanism that could vend fruit without damaging it had to be solved. Much like USelectIt‘s new Alpine Elevator vending machine, elevator vending technology was utilized to gently deliver the bananas from the shelf to the customer.