Hyderabad: Unclean hotels exploit apps

Any hotel can get provisional registration from FSSAI for Rs100.

Many manage their business with the temporary provisional certification.

Hyderabad: Many restaurants in the city that do not maintain hygiene standards are taking advantage of online food delivery platforms like Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats to sell food.

Exploitation of the loopholes in certification of FSSAI, which is one of the main criteria of the food delivery app, is giving edge to these hoteliers.

Usually, before partnering with any restaurant or hotel, some online platforms visit the place to check out kitchen cleanliness and other hygiene parameters, but many are selected solely upon certification from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the respective state food agencies.

But the loopholes in the process of attaining certification from FSSAI is helping these restaurants creep in into the online platforms.

According to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s food safety wing officials, “Restaurants are getting certification through e-seva and other online portals in the beginning, which is supposed to be verified directly by the food inspectors in later stages. However, the checking part is not taking place because of insufficient food inspectors.”

Anyone with Rs100 can get an Food Safety and Standards Authority of India provisional registration from the single-window clearance, which would be valid for a year.

This quality certificate has become the main criteria for online platforms to include the restaurant on their platform. According to the official, only a few restaurants are having the original registration.

Many manage their business with the temporary provisional certification.

There is also a mechanism in place for the online food delivery apps to inspect restaurants through third party auditors, who are experts in the field of hygiene and conduct surprise physical audits in participating restaurants.

However, not many restaurants fear this once-in-a-blue moon inspection carried out by a private agency. So, they continue to cook in their contaminated kitchens.

When it comes to ratings, it’s the customers who can rate the restaurant, based on quality of food delivered.

Though delivery boys visit the restaurant daily, they have no say on how bad the kitchen is in this matter.