Pizza Vending Machines Rolling Out Across Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — Residents of central Florida will soon be able to get a hot-and-ready pizza fresh from a vending machine.

Orlando-based Pizza Touch, a chain that allocates automatic pizza distribution machines, will begin rolling out nearly 100 pizza vending machines around central Florida in the coming months. The locations of the vending machines have not yet been determined, reported Wesh.com.

The vending machine works by inserting $6, either with a credit card, cash or coins. Then, the customer is prompted to choose from three pizza varieties (margherita, mushrooms and peppers, or four cheese), which are stored in a refrigerator inside the machine. A menu expansion is planned to include pepperoni pizza and a vegetable pizza.

After they’ve made their selection from premade, 9-inch pizzas, the automated machine places the pizza in a nearly 600-degree oven. The baking process takes about two minutes, and the pizza comes out hot, crispy and uncut on a cardboard tray that can be used as a handle.

"The pizza is ready to eat, it comes out hot and it's really good," Giselle Sandra of Pizza Touch said.

Pizza Touch, which started in Italy and Portugal, operates a warehouse in Pinecastle, Fla. The company said it wants to place the vending machines at hospitals, universities, hotels, gas stations and any other location where customers would want a quick bite to eat.

Currently, one pizza vending machine is in operation at a Lakeland, Fla., gas station.

"There are many places that we can put them out," Sandra explained. "We'll start in Orlando and then we'll expand to the rest of the United States."