2021 14th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE)
Food Customization in Cloud Kitchens based on Meal Plans for
Working-Class Consumers in Malaysia
Muhammed Ilham Iswan1, Intan Farahana Binti Kamsin2
1 Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
2021 14th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE) | 978-1-6654-0888-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/DESE54285.2021.9719494
2 Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
1 muhammedilham5@gmail.com, 2intan.farahana@staffemail.apu.edu.my
Abstract - A huge chunk of the world’s population is
from the working-class; people who work from 9-5 for a
salary at the end of every month. Unfortunately, for
them, cooking at home is a luxury they do not have. Most
of the workers consume their daily meals at restaurants,
which is not healthy in the long-term. This is a problem
for individuals who want to stay fit. Staying fit requires
them to follow strict meal plans and meet their daily
nutrition intake targets. Restaurants do not provide the
luxury to order food according to a customized meal plan
that suits their nutrition intake targets. Therefore, this
research aims to develop an effective IoT solution that
allows consumers to customize food according to their
meal plans. Subjects involved in the research will be
selected randomly and will be surveyed and interviewed.
This research gives a new use for an existing invention
and can be further carried into other countries where
citizens are facing the same problem while also including
individuals out of the working class as customers of the
system.
Index Terms – Cloud Kitchen, Food Customization, Meal
Plan
1. Introduction
Working-class consumers have a dream, to have healthy
meals everyday according to their meal plans. Meal plans are
provided by fitness centers to those who want to stay fit [1].
For working-class consumers though, its impossible to
prepare food on their own due to time constraints [2] and
therefore are rarely able to stay fit due to this[1]. Therefore,
this research is conducted to investigate the possibilities of
having meals prepared for consumers according to their meal
plans by integrating an IoT solution.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Research Domain
2.1.1 Customization of Food
Food customization is a trend that is growing fast.
It is a trend that many consumers love to have
when they purchase food [3]. In the business’
point of view the process of mass customization
should be adopted to achieve the goal of
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TEKNOLOGI
customizing food according to customer’s
requirements [4]. Mass customization has become
a significant trend in the food industry with the
introduction of emerging technologies such as
Internet of Things (IoT), allowing to produce new
types of food with a higher degree of
customization [5].
2.1.2 Cloud Kitchen
Delivery has become more of a threat to traditional
restaurants [6]. This model is considered the future
of restaurants. It is an extremely efficient
alternative for menus, specialized production and
logistics with lower labor costs and no customers
that dine-in [7]. The cloud kitchen is basically a
location which is rented out for a very low rate and
is close to its potential customer market [8], which
does not hire any full-time employees to get their
food delivered, instead partnerships are made with
third party delivery companies to do the job [7].
Moreover, the business only needs an application
or a website to receive orders from [7]. All the
dishes will be prepared in that exact same kitchen
space where its easy to cook, prepare and deliver
the orders [8]. This concept is also referred to as
an “order-only” restaurant [7].
2.1.3 Meal Plan
A specialized meal plan is the go-to option for a
considerable amount of the people as a means to
lose or gain weight [1]. In fact, following a strict
meal plan with high protein can help reduce body
fat and maintain the bone density or even improve
it [9]. If an individual follows a meal plan and
achieves their goal of losing weight it can help
them prevent themselves from chronic diseases
[10]. A meal plan does not only aid in losing
weight, it also allows people who follow it to gain
weight as well [11]. A well programmed meal
plan should be followed if an individual is to gain
body mass as they wish with sufficient protein and
low carb intakes [12].
 2.2 Similar Systems
2.2.1 Pop Meals
Pop Meals, formerly known as Dahmakan, makes
use of cloud kitchens to serve their customers. Pop
Meals have many cloud kitchens stationed within
the city therefore, they are closer to their
customers than any restaurant. They have a set
menu for each day. The menu is derived after
thorough market research taking into
consideration consumer spending habits,
preferences and time of the year as well.
Therefore, the menu varies everyday providing its
customers with a variety of dishes to choose from.
The user can choose their desired meals and place
their orders on the Pop Meals’ official mobile
application or website. The delivery time can be
scheduled according to the customer’s
convenience. Once the order is placed the kitchen
that is nearest to the customer receives the order
and they start preparing it. Once prepared, the
delivery department is notified for pickup and
drop-off at customer’s location.
Fig 1.0 Pop Meals
orders all the ingredients required in real-time to
prepare for each order. Then orders are then
prepared and sent for delivery.
Fig 1.1 Grain
2.2.3 Food Panda
Food Panda connects restaurants directly to
potential customers. They do not have their own
kitchens that make food. However, they have their
own delivery drivers who get a commission for
each delivery. Customers have a wide range of
restaurants to choose from in their area. Once the
customer makes an order, the restaurant accepts it,
prepares it and leaves it for a delivery driver to
come pick it up and deliver it to the customer.
Food Panda gives the option to schedule the
delivery time and choose a desired location for
each order. Nevertheless, not all restaurants on the
Food Panda mobile application have storefronts.
Some of the restaurants that sell food on Food
Panda have implemented the Cloud Kitchen
concept while utilizing Food Panda as a third-
party delivery partner to deliver their orders.

2.2.2 Grain
Grain and Pop Meals share the same concept but
what makes Grain different from Pop Meals is that
they offer a meal plan option for customers.
Consumers are supposed to choose what they want
for their meals and plan it ahead of time, since
slots run out after a certain number of customers
make bookings for a meal on a particular day. For
example, when Grain gets 50 orders for lunch on
a Tuesday, lunch orders for that day are no longer Fig 1.2 Food Panda
accepted. For each day, each meal has a variety of
dishes to choose from. The meal plan must be
designed by the customer with a minimum of three
meals per order. In this case, customers need
not place new orders for every day, they can
just design a meal plan on Grain’s official
platform, make the payment and wait for the meals
to be delivered. Once the order is placed, the
kitchen that is situated closest to the customer,
receives the order. When this occurs, the kitchen

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 2.2.4 Compare & Contrast Table
Criteria/System Pop Meals Grain FoodPanda
Food No No No
Customization
In-house kitchen Yes Yes No
Own delivery Yes Yes Yes
system
Provide meal No Yes No
plans
Table 1.0: Compare/Contrast Table
Based on Table 1.0, three similar systems have
been compared that make use of the cloud kitchen
concept. It can be concluded that only Grain
provides the option to design a meal plan for their
consumers. Grain is a Singaporean based company
with no operations in Malaysia. Only Grain and
Pop Meals have their own in-house kitchens
whereas Food Panda does not. All three
companies have their own delivery systems, but it
is clear that none of these companies provide
consumers the option to customize their food
according to their liking. Thus, it is safe to
conclude that there is a need to develop a system
that makes use of the cloud kitchen concept
allowing working class consumers to customize
food according to their meal plans. Due to this the
research is taken into consideration.
3. Problem Statement
There are many working class people who can only dream
of staying fit and living a healthy lifestyle. Staying fit
whether it is to lose fat or gain muscle requires a strict diet
to be followed [2]. For the working class though, the time to
cook at home and to follow a strict diet is a luxury they do
not have [1]. From daily commuting to overtime working,
they simply cannot find the time to follow a strict diet that
would give them the healthy lifestyle they are looking for. A
recent study concludes that an average employee eats at least
two meals from the workplace canteen, some even have
three [13]. This goes to show that they cannot find the time
to prepare food at home and therefore they eat in their
workplace canteens.
Due to the recent uproar of employees demanding healthy
food to be served at their workplace canteens, many
companies have taken steps to cater healthier food so that
their employees can maintain a healthy diet even when at the
workplace [13]. However, no matter how healthy the food
is, an individual who works out on a regular basis, will not
find the foods required for their daily diet in a workplace
canteen [14]. A gym goer sets a target for each nutrition
intake in a day (For example, 100g of Protein, 50g of
Carbohydrates, 10g of Fat etc.) and under any circumstances
he/she has to achieve that target every day for effective
results; whether it be to lose weight or gain muscle [15] and
also exercise according to plan. The target set for nutrition
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intake cannot be achieved by eating in the workplace
canteen.
Any individual can get meal plans and exercise routines
from their local gym once requested. The nutrition intake
targets and exercise routines for an individual will be
customized according to their body type while also
considering how active they are throughout the day [16].
If an individual wants to follow the diet successfully, they
must cook the meals at home the night before work or in the
morning before leaving to work, which a lot of working-
class people do not have the time to do [17]. Many of them
can find the time to work out but they cannot find the time
to prepare their meals according to the plan[17]. Due to this,
most workers give up the healthy lifestyle and go on to
become obese [18].
An urban development called Cloud kitchens can overcome
this problem. Cloud kitchens are utilized by businesses that
do not have a store front, but they cook and deliver food to
their customer’s doorsteps [19]. However, all cloud kitchen
businesses that exist today do not give the option of
customization to their customers. Most cloud kitchens have
their own set menus and the consumer has to choose from
the available options, none of it can be customized [6]. This
makes the above-mentioned problem still valid; as
consumers who want to follow a certain meal plan still
cannot do so.
4. Aim and Objectives
4.1 Aim
This research aims to develop an effective IoT solution that
allows consumers to customize their food according to their
meal plans by focusing on the following specific objectives
4.2 Objectives
o To implement customization of food according
consumer’s meal plan in the cloud kitchen.
o To implement a real-time slot booking option that
enables scheduling of food delivery according to
consumer’s time convenience and desired delivery
location.
o To implement real-time tracking of the food making
process and delivery.
5. Research Questions
o How to bring about the “customization of food” option
into cloud kitchen?
o How to enable real-time slot-booking option into cloud
kitchen?
o How to enable the real-time tracking of the food
making process and delivery?
 6. Significance of the Research
The working-class crowd are facing an issue to cook their
own food at home, which is healthier and more satisfying, it
is known that home-made food is the best. Much of the
working-class crowd want to hit the gym and maintain a
healthy lifestyle but to do that they need to follow a strict
meal plan, which unfortunately they are unable to do so,
since they face a time constraint. Most meal plans are
customized particularly for each individual therefore, the
preparation should be custom as well. Therefore, the
researchers have come up with a solution where the
working-class consumers can upload their meal plans into a
mobile-application and get their food delivered to them at
their preferred time and location. This will help them follow
their meal plans easily and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
7. Methodology
For this research, 85 working class consumers whose age
ranges from 23-40 years old will be selected. Sampling
method used will be random sampling therefore the subjects
selected will be an unbiased representation of the total
population.
Questionnaires and interviews will be used in this research
as a method to collect data. 85 employees will be taking part
in the questionnaire survey while 10 out of the 85 will take
part in the interview session, therefore the researcher will
have a clear understating and have more insight into the data
collected.
8. Overview of the system/solution
Fig 1.3: Overview of System
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This system has 3 main users, the member who applied for
the service, the delivery driver and kitchen staff. Members
will be able to upload their meal plans by filling out a table
that has empty slots for each meal. A scheduling option for
delivery will be available where members can fill the slots
to receive food to the desired location at the desired time.
Meals plans can be updated, but only twenty-four hours
before it is scheduled for delivery. Updates on meal plans
can be done by kitchen staff but only upon request of the
members or if there was a lack in ingredients for the day.
Payments for the food can be done via the application on a
daily, weekly or monthly basis depending on how long the
meal plan prologues. Members, drivers and kitchen staff can
view the upcoming orders for the day and for the week. One
hour before delivery, members and drivers will have access
to track their orders. Delivery drivers and kitchen staff can
update order status such as when the food is in preparation
or when it is picked up by the driver etc.
9. Conclusion
According to the findings in the statement it can be
concluded that working-class consumers have many barriers
when trying to stay fit. According to the findings, working-
class consumers are unable to follow meal plans strictly due
to the fact that they have no effective way to source the meals
mentioned in the plan. This can be overcome if they utilize
cloud kitchens that allow customization, where meal plans
can be uploaded and thereafter, the meals will be delivered
to their doorstep on the desired day and time. This research
addresses an unsolved problem using an existing invention
Acknowledgments
I would like to offer my thanks to Ms. Intan Farahana and
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation
(APU), Malaysia for giving me the opportunity to be part of
this international conference and the publication of my
research paper into this journal.
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