Patent ID: 7973642

Claim:
A method for managing the handling of food items in a restaurant, comprising: preparing a plurality of one type of a food item at a food preparation station; automatically identifying the type of the prepared food item based on at least one attribute of the food item and automatically counting the number of the prepared food items, by identifying means located at the food preparation station; providing at least one prepared food holding device; placing the prepared food items in the holding device; recording the time at which the food items were placed in the holding device; tagging the holding device with an RFID tag; providing at least one RFID interrogator for reading data from and writing data to the RFID tag on the holding device; encoding, by the interrogator, the RFID tag with the recorded time and with data from the identifying means to identify the type and number of food items; and providing a controller for receiving data from the identifying means and for sending data to and receiving data from the RFID interrogator.