Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: September 2013
September activity was cooler than the surprisingly steamy summer months, with two notable acquisitions announced and nine companies declaring a total of $54 million in investment.

Hack//Meat SV Update: Cow Share With Us Splits Into Beef Buying Platform & Online Store
Hack//Meat SV best business winner Cow Share With Us shares how their concept has changed, what challenges they’ve faced and what may be next on the horizon.

How Food Inflation Affects Restaurants
Danny Carberry of Panera Bread dives into the effects of food inflation on restaurants and consumers. 

National Restaurant Association Finds Customers Crave Tableside Technology
New research from the National Restaurant Association (NRA) finds that the majority of consumers have utilized tech-based dining, and an even higher percentage is interested in such options, if their favorite eateries provide them.

Infographic(s) of the Week: Wired Mines Food Network Recipes
In an attempt to scrape massive datasets and “produce something wonderful,” Wired crawled and visualized the Food Network’s database of 49,733 recipes to shed light on how and what America eats.

How Mobile Technology Is Changing the Way We Dine Out - Wall Street Journal
Mobile technology is changing the way we eat out—from how we choose a restaurant and make a reservation to the way we order, pay the bill and share the experience with others. But are diners really better off?

Adding “Local” As A Menu Descriptor - Food Genius
Last year, 90 percent of fine-dining establishments, 63 percent of casual-dining establishments, 45 percent of fast-casual chains, and 28 percent of QSRs offered some kind of local food. However, all of this local food is rarely being highlighted on menus.

What’s for Dinner? Munchery Delivers Chef-made Meals to Your Door - VentureBeat
The popular startup underwent something of a makeover. Diners now have the option to buy beverages and choose from kids menus. The company released native apps for iPhones and iPads and has started using compostable and biodegradable trays.

OLO On Mobile Restaurant Ordering: 'We Want To Be The Amazon Of Food' - Forbes
OLO's ecommerce platform allows customers to order and pay for takeout food in advance from their phones.

A Restaurant Loyalty Program With A Do-Gooder Twist - Fast Company
The Spring's loyalty technology promises diners 3% cash back and 3% of their bill donated to community projects

Yo, Farmers, Upgrade Bessie the Cow by Connecting her Guts to the Cloud (seriously) - VentureBeat
Well CowYes, this is a pill-sized device that you put into Ol’ Bessie’s feed, and once the cow swallows it, it monitors its digestive system. The pill can last in her rumen for up to 100 days, reporting back to a small Bluetooth device on her collar.

Families Brace As Billions in Food Stamp Cuts Set In - NBC
Benefit cuts to food stamp recipients kicked in on Friday, a move by Congress that will siphon $5 billion off a program that helps one in seven Americans put breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table.

A Big Announcement - Food52
Food52 has acquired Real Time Farms. Real Time Farms is the first crowd-sourced nationwide food guide, founded with the mission of helping people understand more about where their food comes from,

Humans 1, Robots 0 - Wall Street Journal
Computers seem to be replacing humans across many industries, and we're all getting very nervous. But if you want some reason for optimism, visit the self-checkout machine at your local grocery store. It doesn't hold a candle to the humans.

Walmart Labs’ Subscription Snack Service Goodies.co Will Shut Down - TechCrunch
Walmart Labs announed that its subscription commerce service will shut down.  

Scottish Start-up Insignia Technologies Secures £865,000 in Deal Led by Equity Gap - Startups
Founded in 2012 after a merger between ink printing service Insigniapack and Novas Technologies, Insignia Technologies produces a “smart” label which changes colour over time to show how long a packet of food has been open.

Square Market is attracting sellers that have never taken a Reader payment - Gigaom
While Square is known for its hardware, it’s starting to build up an e-commerce business. A fifth of the 500,000 merchants listed on Square’s new internet marketplace are using Square solely for online sales and marketing.

The Airo is a Fitness Band That Can Also Track What You Eat … Somehow - Venture Beat
The days of manually counting calories could soon be over. Canadian startup Airo has created a fitness band that not only tracks your sleep and heart rate, but also your eating habits.

Startup Pronutria Wants Patients To Eat Drugs At The Dinner Table - Wall Street Journal
A Cambridge, Mass.-based startup is developing a new class of edible drugs derived from the proteins in the human diet that could help a variety of diseases and taste good, too.

Hospital food goes hi-tech with iPads, consolidation - Macro Island Florida
Hospital food in Southwest Florida has entered a futuristic realm. It’s a world where a food service kitchen may look more like a science lab, and patients are greeted by hostesses taking restaurant-style orders on iPads.

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