Simplified control panel for a food preparation machine

A machine for preparing food or beverage products, the machine being adapted for injecting a fluid under pressure in an ingredient capsule inserted therein, the machine comprising a fluid reservoir, a fluid system, a controller for managing at least one food or beverage preparation parameter, and a selector for allowing a user to manually select the at least one food or beverage preparation parameter, the selector comprises:

• (i) a sliding element comprising at least two independent switch actuators, the at least two independent switch actuators comprising at least two parallel ramp-shaped protrusions with tapered extremities having various lengths and/or being unaligned in the transversal direction;
• and
• (ii) a contact panel that comprises at least two selector switches linked to the controller,
• such that each of the at least two selector switches is actuated/un-actuated by the presence, or respectively the absence, of a corresponding switch actuator for each given position of the sliding element, and the simultaneous state of actuation of the at least two independent switches is interpreted by the controller as a bitmap code for setting the at least one food or beverage preparation parameter.