Heating devices and methods which are particularly useful in vending machin es for hot products. Products such as foods, including beverages, contained in individual containers such as cans are rapidly heated to serving temperature by inducti on heating for delivery to a customer. Various types of products with different heating characteristics are rapidly heated without deleterious effects on the produc t by varying the power and timing of the inductive heating. The type of product is identified by machine-readable indicia on the container which are automatically scanned prior to heating. The product containers may be agitated before, during and/or after heating to mix the contents and distribute heat evenly. The containers are heated in a manner to safely heat the product without overheating or causing damage to the container. A power management protocol turns off non-essential components of the vending machine while the inductive heater is energized to permit the vending machin e to operate on a standard 120 VAC, 15 A electrical circuit without overload./SD OAB
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