Kochi: The spurt in demand for online food delivery among the residents of Kochi has brought to the fore a threat of stale food being given to customers.
The food safety department said that since January they have been getting complaints of stale food being delivered to customers. “We receive at least one complaint every week over the phone,” said food safety vigilance squad official Sakkir Hussain.
Last month, a customer from Kakkanad complained that he had to seek medical help after having a food item that was delivered online.
However, officials said it is difficult to initiate action against erring hoteliers. “The problem we face is that the food is not served as packaged products where manufacturing and expiry dates, content details, price and address of the manufacturing company are a must. These details are not available on food packets purchased online. If we register a case on the basis of stale food served online, it cannot be proved in the court. We can prove it only when the customer gets hospitalized and the doctor advises medication for food poisoning,” said Hussain.
“The life of cooked food is two hours. Hoteliers themselves say they can’t ensure the quality of the food that they cooked much earlier in the day. In some complaints, we found that there is a delay in food delivered to customers due to slew of factors, including traffic,” the official said.
Meanwhile, officials said some customers are also misusing the opportunity to threaten the hoteliers citing small issues in the food. “Some customers threaten hoteliers saying they will publish news on the issue on social media. Scared over dent on the image of the hotel, hoteliers have been forced either to cut down the price or to provide food for free. Later both parties keep this issue out of public domain,” the official said.
Kerala hotel and restaurants’association (KHRA) officials admit that hotels have been forced to compromise on the quality of food when it is delivered online at a cheap rate. “There is no mechanism available to check the quality of food delivered online. Some kinds of food such as mayonnaise and Arabic food items get sour fast. We don’t know from where the delivery boys buy the food. Besides, ordering food online also generate huge plastic waste, which endanger the nature. The online food delivery system needs intervention of the state government. The government should bring in a mechanism to control a system where no one is responsible for delivering stale or unhygienic food,” said KHRA general secretary G Jayapal.
No comments:
Post a Comment