A British school last week became the first school in Europe to use an eye-recognition system as part of its school meals service.
Pupils at the Venerable Bede secondary school in Sunderland chose their lunch, then, before reaching the till, leaned into a machine that scanned their irises. The scanner is linked to each pupil's account, which the cashier brings up on screen and debits as required.
The iris scanner was developed by US firm Iridian Technologies and was installed by Edinburgh-based CRB Solutions, a specialist in cashless catering systems.
The scanner grabbed the headlines last week, although many schools have been using cashless payment systems since 1993. At £60,000, the iris scanner is more expensive than swipe- or smart-card systems and it doesn't move queues any quicker.
A cashless card system at a large secondary school costs between £12,000 and £15,000 to install, and, at 12 transactions a minute, is just as fast. About 400 school cafeterias across the UK use cashless card payment systems.
Vivianne Buller, chair of the Local Authority Caterers Association and general manager of school catering in Northumberland, said that since the installation of cashless systems in her area nine years ago, uptake of school meals had increased by 20%.