Kyocera’s “matoil” service, in cooperation with the apartment hotel “MIMARU” operated by Cosmos Hotel Management, has been offering food allergy and gluten-free meals to guests since August 2024.
The hotel receives the meals on behalf of the guests, and when it’s time to eat them, they can be easily heated in hot water or microwaved.
A new business “matoil,” born out of Kyocera’s startup program, is a food allergy service that responds to the “want to eat” of people with food restrictions.
This is the fourth year that the service is being offered, which includes delivering meal sets to lodges on school excursions and study camps, and using refrigerated pickup lockers at Tokyo Station to hand out boxed lunches.
The service in cooperation with MIMARU Hotel that we have experienced this time is used by many foreign visitors to Japan, and it was triggered by the fact that an American traveler who used MATOIL stayed at MIMARU Hotel in Japan. First, let us introduce how to use the service.
After applying through the dedicated matoil form, a meeting is held online (English is available). matoil will ask what kind of allergies you have and what foods you want to avoid. The matoil staff will ask what kind of allergies you have and what kind of foods you would like to avoid, and plan a meal that suits your guests’ needs.
The service also asks about the user’s age, food preferences, likes and dislikes, and whether Japanese or Western food is preferred, and determines the meals to be served according to the itinerary, such as “3 meals for breakfast, 2 meals for lunch, and 3 meals for dinner. When making a reservation at MIMARU, users are requested to mention that they will be using “matoil” for their stay.
When meals are sent to MIMARU hotels, they are shipped frozen. The key point here is the pickup. The MIMARU Hotel staff will pick up the food on behalf of the guest and store it in the guestroom refrigerator. This allows guests to enjoy their trip without having to worry about prior confirmation with the hotel or communication with the shipping company.
Among the users, there are many repeat customers who use MIMARU hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto respectively, and they sometimes ship to each hotel according to their travel plans. In addition, for guests staying for longer than a week, they sometimes send the packages in multiple shipments.
The matoil meals are basically free of eggs, milk, wheat, and nuts, plus sesame and soy. Halal-friendly options, such as vegan and pork-free, are also available.
So, now it’s time to try a real meal! Honestly, how is an allergy-friendly meal? Wouldn’t it be dry? But that was not the case at all, and the food was even better than I had imagined. Even if you don’t have allergies, you will want to try the other dishes on the menu. I heard that Western-style dishes such as pizza and pasta are also popular.
The hotel’s tableware is also tasteful, which makes the food taste even better. It is also nice that there is a large dining table where everyone can enjoy their meals together. I felt that this service was well matched with the advantages of an apartment hotel with a kitchen.
Traveling for people with food allergies requires a certain amount of advance preparation. Especially in the case of long-term travel, there are various risks involved, such as accidental ingestion of the causative food in an unfamiliar destination, development of allergies, and access to medical facilities. For this reason, people with food restrictions often cook their own food while traveling, and many choose apartment hotels with kitchens like MIMARU.
“We want everyone to be able to freely enjoy a meal anytime, anywhere without lowering the bar for dining. This service, which is filled with such thoughts from both companies, is available at all 27 MIMARU hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.
© Source travel watch
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