When we enter a fast food restaurant, it goes without saying that we expect to receive our food quickly. The Burger King chain however, has taken that concept up a gear in Singapore. Across the entire country it is now possible to purchase a burger or packet of fries or meal by simply waving your EZ-link card over a scanner.

The EZ-link card is a contactless smart card which is used to pay for transportation in Singapore. You can also use a number of other concession cards with Burger King’s new system.

Think of it as paying with your Oyster card (London), if you will.

I have to question the execution of this overhaul. I mean really, how difficult is it to pay for a fast food purchase with actual money or a debit card? Well, apparently quite difficult in Singapore as contactless cards are fast become the normal way to pay for goods across the islands retail stores.

But how much faster do people really need their burger fix? And surely making it even easier to purchase unhealthy, fatty food will only help to encourage the worldwide obesity epidemic?

There is also the problem of theft to consider (in and out of the BK context). A simple card swipe of a card does not involve any authentication that the person using the card is the actual owner of said card. With more than 6,000,000 of these cards existing on the island, keeping tabs might prove to be difficult.

Eric Foo general manger of Burger Kind LTD in Singapore claimed that BK has always aimed to offer their customers choice and this wider method of payment is just a further extension of this aim.

I wonder how long it will take before similar technology exists within the UK? Will we be using our Oyster cards (or something similar) to pay for takeaways in Birmingham, pizza delivery Liverpool or Edinburgh food delivery?