Patent ID: 7723655

Claim:
A microwave oven, comprising: a bar code scanner that scans bar code data from a bar code attached to a container containing food; and a controller that determines whether the bar code data includes cooking data for the microwave oven, sets cooking, including set cook time, conditions based on included cooking data and performs a cooking operation according to the set cooking conditions set based on the included cooking data, when the bar code data is determined to include cooking data for the microwave oven, and obtains food identification data from the bar code data, locates in and reads out from a memory cooking data, including a cook time, for the microwave oven based on the obtained food identification data, sets cooking conditions, including the read out cook time, and performs a cooking operation according to the set cooking conditions set based on the located cooking data, when the bar code data is not determined to include cooking data for the microwave oven, the set cook time being the same as the read out cook time.