As you return home hungry after a hectic day at work, probably the first thing that you need to take care of is dinner. While making it from scratch may be an arduous task for many, luckily, we live in a golden age of food delivery with apps like Swiggy, Zomato, Food Panda and UberEats making it easier to choose and deliver the food right to your doorstep. But while your food delivery guy might seem like a godsent, well... think again!
Recently, a food delivery guy in the USA was filmed allegedly dipping his testicles in salsa before delivering it to a customer who had ordered Mexican food online! Apparently, a video posted on social media showed delivery man Howard Webb reaching for the salsa cup while the driver of the vehicle said, “This is what you get when you give an 89-cent tip for an almost 30-minute drive (sic).”
While the man has been arrested by the police and charged with “adulteration of food, liquids or pharmaceuticals,” one wonders if the food that we all order online, almost on a daily basis, is safe for consumption.
Not too long ago, a takeaway delivery driver in India was sacked after he was filmed helping himself to part of a customer’s order before resealing the containers. A similar case was reported in Australia, when restaurant owner Anarug Humigan noticed the Easi Australia delivery driver pull over on his scooter and unpack up to five containers of food from the carrier bag. In a video taken from Mr Humigan’s balcony, the driver can be seen digging into one of the containers before resealing it and repacking the order so that the partially eaten container sits at the bottom of the bag.
Easi Australia delivery personnel caught on tape tampering with food packages.
Shedding light on the hazards of such cases on the customers’ health, Dr Hari Kishan, general physician from Apollo Hospital expresses, “Food that is ordered from outside in itself is not the healthiest, even if it is not tampered with. However, in these rare cases, where someone is trying to contaminate you on purpose, the risk of a health complication increases quite a bit. Ranging from infections to vomiting and gastric problems, such cases definitely cause worry.”
While restaurant owners are worried about the quality of their food in terms of business, young adults who order in food on a daily basis, are worried about what actually goes into their stomachs.
“It is very disturbing to hear all sorts of news about food hygiene and quality not being taken care of by food delivery apps like Swiggy, Zomato and Food Panda. As a working professional living alone in the city, it is not always possible to cook at home and I do depend a lot on food ordered from these apps. I just hope every time I order that my case doesn’t feature among the ones in the news,” expresses M. Manjula, an HR professional from the city. Unfortunately, most people have little option other than to order food online. “Ordering food makes everything so much more easier because we don’t always have the time to go to a restaurant to eat. When there is the option of bringing the restaurant to you along with the many offers these apps offer, it is a win-win situation. People are apprehensive about food being tampered with but the same argument can also be applied to eating at restaurants. Cooking is not an option for me as I live in a hostel,” says Bhavana Murali, a post-graduate student from the city.
Resonating a similar feeling, Arvind Francis, an event operations manager, says, “The only reason I order online is for sheer convenience. I work in event management and that requires me to frequently travel, therefore having a constant source of meals is quite impossible. That’s why food delivery apps are always on my home screen.”
Naturally, one wonders how an industry as sensitive and dependent on customer satisfaction as the F&B industry can survive if food delivery apps fail to keep up with quality standards. Says chef Inam Khan, owner of the Steak House, “These kinds of incidents are quite shocking. I think the food delivery companies should make sure that each of their delivery guys is trained properly and emphasise more on the ethics of their jobs. They should make their employees understand how important it is to make sure that the food is safe for the customer. I would also like to add that most of these delivery guys are overloaded with work. They are stressed to deliver the orders on time, so companies should give these boys proper breaks to eat and rest in between deliveries."
