Robot chefs and free software among masks, gloves and biohazard gear as China Inc donates to contain coronavirus outbreak

Country Garden Holdings, one of China’s biggest real estate developers, has donated its Foodom robot to a quarantine centre in Wuhan to prepare meals for health officials

The product is among the billions of dollars of products that have poured into Wuhan since the outbreak started

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Foodom, a robot chef that can deliver 120 servings of clay pot rice every hour, at a quarantine facility in Wuhan. The robot chef was developed by a unit of China’s second-largest property developer Country Garden Holdings. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:31am, 21 Feb 2020Updated: 11:05am, 21 Feb 2020

At the Hubei Land Resources Vocational College, a quarantine facility in the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, a robot is cooking up a storm.

Called Foodom, the automaton can prepare 120 servings of clay pot rice with different ingredients every hour around the clock from its fuchsia pink metal casing the size of a standard shipping container. That’s enough to feed the army of doctors, nurses and health officials staffing the quarantine centre to contain an outbreak that has sickened 61,682 people and killed 1,921 in the province as of February 19.

Developed by Qianxi Robotic Catering, a unit of the real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, the robot was among the billions of dollars of masks, gloves, biohazard clothing and all kinds of protective equipment that have poured in since the outbreak was traced to this landlocked province in January.

From instant hotpot to down clothing to robot chefs, China’s worst public health crisis in decades has also become an opportunity for companies to showcase their philanthropy and endear their brands to the estimated 50 million people who have been homebound since last month because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A robot chef preparing clay pot rice at a quarantine centre in the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan. Photo: Handout by Country Garden Holdings

Haidilao International Holding donated 5 million yuan toward the coronavirus relief effort, including 2 million yuan of instant hotpot to medical staff in Wuhan. The shares of the restaurant chain fell by as much as 4.8 per cent on February 10 in Hong Kong after members of a family caught the coronavirus during a large hotpot dinner in January.