Digital dining: Tech revolutions in the food industry

Is your cutlery clever? Can it check for levels of harmful bacteria? Does it know how many pesticides and nutrients there are in the food you eat? Can it also emit negative ions to help keep the food fresh?

This may be the stuff of science fiction movies, but the innovations above are just a few examples of the technology trends that are taking hold in the food industry.

Social apps that are bringing diners closer together and helping them understand where food is sourced from, while restaurateurs and product manufacturers are re-thinking the industry for the digital age.

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The knock-on effect? If successful, digital dining promotes busier restaurants, more productive home cooking and bigger profits for those companies willing to experiment.

CNBC highlights some of the key trends in the food industry in 2014.

—By CNBC.com's Matt Clinch

What is it? A musical table created from a project between Dutch electronics company Philips and London-based creative agency Ogilvy.

What can it do? It's a table to be found in several public houses in some of London's hipper locations. It allows pub goers the chance to listen to trending music curated specifically for the neighborhood. Simply plug in headphones, rest your drink on the top and listen away.

Mandy Saven, the head of food, beverage and hospitality at U.K.-based advisory firm Stylus, told CNBC that clever technology tailors each person's listening experience to their location.

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"Using tech-fueled dining experiences to connect patrons with the charm and cultural nuance inherent in the restaurant's locality is a very smart and engaging move," she told CNBC via email.

What is it? Gratafy is a mobile app that enables users to gift food or drink on social media sites.

What can it do? With just a few clicks you can send a friend a special code that allows them to redeem a dish or drink at a local restaurant or bar. A growing number of outlets are involved and gifts typically can be a beer, bottle of wine or a piece of pie.

Who makes it? The Seattle-based firm launched by Brian Erke and Ryan Halper is expanding to other major U.S. cities. Currently it is only available to punters in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and Chicago.

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Saven said the app had competition from initiatives such as BarEye and BuzzMe, adding that crowdfunding shopping experiences like these were nothing new. "This initiative is indicative of a new kind of sharing economy and, indeed, gifting economy within the hospitality space. Smart vendors can capitalize on this opportunity by allowing patrons to interact remotely with their menus," she said.

What is it? A smart knife that includes a sensor and a screen and can give users some basic information.

What can it do? It can check for levels of harmful bacteria and knows how many pesticides and nutrients there are in the food you eat. It can also emit negative ions to help keep the food fresh.

Who makes it? Designed by South Korean Jeon Chang Dae, this concept is not currently for sale but is a submission for a design competition this year backed by Swedish firm Electrolux. The rechargeable knife gives the user the option of voice recognition or touch screen.

What is it? A sandwich shop in Las Vegas is using Google Glass to train staff in optimum food-service performance.

How does it work? At Capriotti's, management-level employees wear the glasses during peak periods to film activity from the front line of the sandwich production counter. Footage is then reviewed and analyzed, and then critiqued afterwards.

"Using this video, corporate and management could observe ways to improve speed and customer satisfaction. Much like football players can watch their recorded plays, Glass allows team members and managers to pinpoint areas that can be improved," Jason Smylie, the CIO at Capriotti's told CNBC via email.

"We have used Glass to make some first person training videos; however, with slow app production and only semi-public acceptance of the wearable technology, we are keeping Glass behind the scenes."

What is it? Food created using 3-D printing technology. This is a new trend in the manufacturing industry that is gathering momentum and is transforming everything from medicine to home goods.

Who makes it? It might sound like something out of a Star Wars film, but a Texas company has teamed up with NASA to develop a 3-D food printer for astronauts to create custom meals in space.

Meanwhile in the U.K., Choc Edge sells a chocolate-printing machine for £2,888 ($4,373). U.S. start-up Modern Meadow is working on making artificial meat with a 3-D bioprinter, saying on its website that it develops cultured leather and meat products that require no animal slaughter and much lower inputs of land, water, energy and chemicals. The firm has just been given $10 million in financing from Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures.

What is it? Edible QR codes on food so you can find out where it was sourced.

Where uses it? A number of establishments now use the technology. London-based sushi restaurant Moshi Moshi claim it first developed the "interactive sushi" in 2012. Once a user scans a code with their smartphone they are taken to a website helping them find the sustainable origins of the fish. It's an effort by restaurants to make their supply chain more transparent.

California's Harney Sushi is another group that uses the edible codes, which are printed on rice paper using water-based ink. Head chef Rob Ruiz has since told reporters that the group was taking record bookings after its introduction.

"The initiative follows the release of a recent report that concludes 52 percent of seafood in southern California is mislabeled," Stylus' Saven told CNBC.

"Crucially, tech-enhanced dining formats can help a restaurant or hospitality operator to convey their ecological and sustainability credentials...operators can strike a positive chord with socially-minded visitors. With a number of high-profile food safety incidents knocking consumer confidence around the world, accountability and traceability has become top-of-the-agenda."

What is it? The ultimate party gimmick or just an excuse for drinkers to become even lazier? Yura is a flying drone turned bartender that serves up custom cocktails and juices.

Who makes it? Another entry into Electrolux's design competition, this has been dreamed up by Ukrainian Herman Haydin and has reached the semi-final stages. He is hoping to one day sell the idea in the shops.

The design has a smart cartridge for liquid that can heat or cool cocktails. It's hooked up to wi-fi, uses voice commands and can configure the temperature of liquid, the number of calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

"Parents and children will have a new member of the family," Haydin writes in his design blog on the Electrolux website. "Just imagine the morning after a hard party. The bottle of mineral water is flying directly into your hands."