Start-up rolls out more healthy ready-to-eat meals with kiosk at Gleneagles Hospital

At an unmanned kiosk in the lobby of Gleneagles Hospital, customers can order chilled fresh food bowls, mixing and matching a minimum of five ingredients out of 15, and have the bowl assembled within 90 seconds.

- Joyce Lee

A receipt printed upon collection lists the exact amount of carbohydrates, protein and fat, and the calorie count for each order.

The automated kiosk, the size of two large refrigerators side by side, monitors the supply of fresh ingredients in real time so they can be topped up when specific ingredients run low.

It is the product of home-grown start-up freshpod, which aims to make healthy ready-to-eat meals available round the clock.

The four-year-old firm is in talks with more private hospitals, office buildings and universities to expand its reach.

"Healthy food shouldn't be so expensive, and a lot of the reason why health food is expensive in Singapore is rentals," the firm's co-founder Stephen Dunstan, 50, said.

Mr Dunstan is a former investment banker with firms like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. His fellow co-founder Joseph Ryan, 42, had opened outlets including Five Guys for Zouk Group in Malaysia at Resorts World Genting.