Many restaurants, and especially fast food restaurants, prepare food in advance so that they can meet the daily fluctuations in demand that occur around breakfast time, lunch time, or dinner time. Food prepared in advance must be stored safely until it is delivered to the consumer. For many food products this means keeping the food product above a certain minimum threshold temperature to prevent spoilage. For other food products, it means keeping the food frozen or chilled. Either way, the food products need to be heated and held at an elevated temperature before being served to consumers.
Although many systems exist to warm or heat food, many of these suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, infrared (IR) heat lamps not only heat the food, but they also heat the surrounding environment. This can result in increased air conditioning costs for the restaurant. This problem may be exacerbated when the food products are in metal foil packaging since the metal foil may have a tendency to reflect the IR radiation away from the food product and into the surrounding environment. Furthermore, IR lamps tend to become quite hot, which poses a burn risk to restaurant employees and/or customers. Although warm air convection systems do not have many of the problems associated with IR lamps, warm air convection systems often cause food products to dry out. Both IR and warm air convection systems tend to steadily consume power regardless of how many food products are currently being heated.
It would be desirable to provide an improved system for warming food that is energy efficient, safe, and effective. In one embodiment described herein, an induction heating system is used to warm food. The food may be packaged in food packaging that includes a current conducting material. The food packaging may be capable of being inductively heated to a temperature sufficient to warm the food.