Apple Pay: Will it help you eat out?

Apple is looking to change the way people pay for their groceries, fast food, morning coffee and more with Apple Pay. The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will come with the electronic wallet feature, the company said during its product announcement event Tuesday.

If all works as envisioned, Apple Pay will allow people to pay for items with a tap of their iPhone at certain retailers. American Express, MasterCard and Visa, and issuing banks including Bank of America, Capital One and Wells Fargo, are on board to be used with Apple Pay at more than 220,000 merchants when the feature is launched later this month.

Apple says participating retailers include Whole Foods, Subway and Panera. You should be able to use it at the drive-through at McDonald’s.

As Chief Executive Tim Cook noted at Tuesday’s event, OpenTable (which bills itself as the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations), has joined with Apple Pay. An OpenTable news release says diners won’t have to add a card to the profile in their OpenTable app but can “settle their check with a single touch.”

The phone uses NFC, or near field communications, the fingerprint Touch ID technology already in the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s and a secure chip to complete payments, reports CNET.

To sync a card with your phone, take a photo of the card using the iPhone camera. After verification with your bank, the card is added to Passbook. When you tap your card to pay for something, a device number is relayed to the merchant along with a dynamic security code. In other words, your credit card number is not stored on your phone, or given to the retailer during a transaction, according to Wired.com.

So what happens if you lose your iPhone? You can suspend the Apple Pay feature for that device using Find My iPhone. So no one else can stock up on Whole Foods gingerbread with your credit card during the holidays.

Food geeks rule. Follow me on Twitter @Jenn_Harris