GS Retail, a South Korean supermarket company and operator of the GS25 convenience store chain based in Korea, has reportedly announced that it will adopt a new fleet of chicken-frying robots, entering the global competition to automate food production.

The retail firm has inked a partnership deal with Roboarte, the food-tech firm behind Robert Chicken, which employs robot arms to fry chicken. As part of the team-up, GS25 intends to deploy Roboarte robots for frying frozen chicken from its own Chicken 25 brand at the retail stores.

GS Retail stated that the robotic cook’s arms will be able to automatically fill up a bucket full of frozen chicken and then dunk it in a frying machine for cooking. The arms would also strain the excess oil by holding the bucket with the entire process taking about 15 minutes to finish.

The company further noted that by using these robot, GS25 store owners and employees can reduce the risk of burn-related accidents while cooking the chicken manually.

Customers will likely enjoy similarly delicious fried chicken regardless of which retail branch they visit, while employees will be better off focusing on other tasks instead of frying chicken.

the retail firm will choose the first retail store chain to implement the chicken-frying robot by April.

GS Retail is not the first company to use chicken-frying robots in the country. Last year, with the COVID-19 wave as its backdrop, Kyochon F&B, the enterprise behind the biggest fried chicken franchise in South Korea, Kyochon Chicken, developed its own chicken-frying robots through a collaboration with Doosan Robotics.

According to Kyochon, the machine robot is incorporated in the pre-cooked chicken's double frying process.

The chicken chain is also getting ready to introduce a new robot that will automate tasks like pre-frying the chicken, shaking off extra breading, and covering it with sauce.

According to industry sources, retailers are expected to progressively use robots to substitute manual work in various food-making operations in order to run more cost-effective stores.

Reports claim, retailers already are automating some service-related tasks, like rolling in auto payment kiosks.

Source credit: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220223000756&np=1&mp=1