How Hygienic is your Online Ordered Food ?

FSSAI, the Indian food safety regulator, has asked food delivery platform to de-list non licensed eateries after receiving complaints about the supply of sub-standard food. The industry which seemed destined to doom is rising again with Swiggy and Zomato leading the pack. However, from late delivery of unhygienic food to cut in restaurant margins, the downside are many.

What are the directions issued by FSSAI?

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed leading food aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats to de-list all restaurants and eateries that do not have an FSSAI licence or registration. It has also asked them to submit a report on the action taken to delist such eateries or food vendors listed on their platforms by July 31.

This move comes after the food safety regulator received a series of complaints about sub-standard food being supplied by restaurants and vendors listed on these delivery platforms.

The regulator has ordered 10 such online food delivery firms to “debar” non-licensed or unregistered restaurants or eateries from their platforms immediately and to ensure compliance with the food safety rules and regulations.

These firms are Zomato, Swiggy, and UberEats, Foodpanda, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmingo, JusFood, Box8 and LimeTray.

This is also significant as the food safety authority had operationalised guidelines for e-commerce food service platforms in February. Under these guidelines, it is mandatory for them to display the FSSAI licence number of the restaurants and eateries listed on their platform. In addition, they also need to have an agreement with these listed eateries regarding compliance with the FSS Act and Rules.

“It is time the online food platforms work harder to ensure compliance with this new legal framework,” FSSAI said in a statement on July 20.

FSSAI, however, noted with “serious concern” that the compliance to these guidelines was “patchy” and there were complaints of restaurants and hotels without FSSAI licence being listed and allowed to sell food products on e-commerce food service platforms.

There were also several complaints of sub-standard food being delivered to consumers through online market aggregators, the FSSAI release added.

Note: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the nodal agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health in India through regulation and supervision of food safety. It was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. It lays down science-based standards for articles of food and regulates their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food to 130 crore citizens of India. The authority is also responsible for creating an information network across the country so that the public and consumers receive rapid, reliable and accurate information about food safety and hygiene.

Why was this step necessary?

Consumers who order food online have become easy prey for app-based food delivery services like Foodpanda, Swiggy and Zomato who deliver food from unhygienic eateries.

Unhygienic eateries are a common sight all across the country, where people mostly seek street food. Food delivery apps tie up with food joints which are not hygienic enough and give them a brand placement irrespective of the ground reality. Users often complain of the bad shape of the eateries, which are often run without adherence to quality standards, and are apprehensive about the food quality. These apps also attract customers by providing huge discounts.

Take the case of Amrutha Chandrashekaran. A resident of Tarnaka, Hyderabad, she narrated her friend’s experiences: “Once she ordered a thali and found a fly in it. When she complained, the company returned the money. After a few days, she ordered chat online. The packing was so bad that half of the chat had spilled out. After that she has completely stopped ordering food from the app-based services.” She said it was scary to imagine that thousands of people trust the delivery apps and buy food without being assured of the quality.

Adding to the worry of those who purchase food from the app-based services is a recent video which went viral, showing the pathetic conditions in which the food was being prepared. The video showed flies buzzing around the kitchen and settling on food items.

The Indian Consumer Complaints Forum has received as many as 257 complaints against Swiggy, a food delivery app, of which the company has resolved only 14. Swiggy’s customer satisfaction stood at only five per cent.

Guneet, a consumer, complained in the forum stating, “I had ordered American chopsuey. When I opened the packet, I saw fungus on the noodles. I immediately lodged a complaint and they refunded the money on my Swiggy wallet. They later took back the money from the wallet without any information.” He alleged, “ They are just showing restaurants but the food is actually not getting delivered from the same restaurant .”

As contacting any personnel of the food delivery apps is an unfriendly exercise, customers have taken to Twitter and other online platforms to complain. A netizen, Adarsh Goswami, said in a tweet that his order for a chicken dish was delivered with no chicken pieces. The gravy came with “ zero chicken PIECES I repeat ZERO ,” he tweeted. He paid Rs 420 for the order. “Such poor service surprisingly the restaurant is on Zomato, Punjabi Tadka Kondapur in Hyderabad,” Goswami wrote.

Experts say that when a restaurant or an eatery is placed on the list of food delivery apps, people assume that they are worth trying. “Until a customer personally knows the place from where he or she is ordering food, one cannot trust the place.” an expert said.

When do we see the food industry booming?

The food delivery sector, written off not too long ago, has seen a revival over the past six months. While market leaders Zomato and Swiggy have raised large funding rounds, cab-hailing firms Uber and Ola, attracted by the runaway expansion of Swiggy, are investing hundreds of crores of rupees to gain a slice of the market.

The food-technology sector is expected to touch at least $2.5 billion by 2021 from its current size of about $700 million, according to a report by consultancy firm RedSeer Management. The online food delivery market is growing at a steady 15% quarter-on-quarter in terms of daily food orders.

Bengaluru-based Swiggy leads the stack with a 35-38% market share, followed by Zomato at 25-30%, according to RedSeer. UberEats, the food delivery business of cab major Uber Inc., which was already operational in several countries, entered the segment in India last year.

Uber’s local rival Ola, which had shut its food delivery business of Ola Cafe in 2016, re-entered the space by acquiring FoodPanda’s India operations in December, and said it would invest $200 million to expand the business.

“The industry is moving more and more towards self-delivery, resulting in the fall of delivery time. Players that have higher control over the delivery process are able to provide much better value,” said Vaibhav Arora, associate general manger, RedSeer Consulting. “We see this come out very strong in the monsoon quarter (July-September). Players which had control over the delivery process were able to charge additional fees from consumers for fulfilling deliveries. And the consumer willingly paid additional fees,” he added.

The revival in the food delivery sector comes two years after TinyOwl, which was considered one of the most promising hyperlocal start-ups, cut jobs and shut operations in many cities. TinyOwl later merged with logistics company RoadRunnr in a distress deal. Along with TinyOwl, several other food delivery companies struggled as investors declined to fund them further. Some such as Dazo and Spoonjoy shut down.

But Swiggy has thrived. The company, which has raised more than $200 million in capital since starting out in 2014, announced its latest funding round of $100 million, led by Naspers this month. Because of the speed and consistency of its logistics network, an easy-to-use app and a large network of restaurants, Swiggy quickly became the largest food delivery app.

Lured by Swiggy’s early success and the fat margins in food delivery, rival Zomato was forced to launch and then expand its delivery business. Uber and Ola have now joined the race, making food delivery one of the most competitive areas in the consumer internet sector.

The RedSeer report also said the top cities for food tech firms include Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Chennai recently joined the list of top cities. The seven cities together contribute to 87% of the overall market. Food delivery companies are taking control over their delivery fleets, with more than half of all orders fulfilled by self-owned delivery fleets, RedSeer said.

The food tech start-ups are also creating more opportunities for the partner eateries. In November 2017, Swiggy had launched Swiggy Access, a program which allows its restaurant partners to set up kitchen spaces in neighbourhoods where they don’t currently operate. Zomato is also working on a similar model for its partner restaurants.

Where do the negative externalities of the industry lie?

As a customer, it's easy to look at the growing food delivery industry as a net good.

One can get a huge range of food sent home - open up your favourite app and depending on where you live, you'll have the details of hundreds of restaurants at your fingertips.

Tracking your food as it makes its way home is now passé - Swiggy might have ushered in the trend in India, but it's become near ubiquitous, and following its acquisition of Runnr, even Zomato is now offering this feature. So the different apps compete with fancy photoshoots, video clips, and detailed ratings.

Unhappy partners

This new status quo isn't quite as good for the restaurants, however. Quite a few restaurant owners are of the opinion that while these apps are a necessity to get discovered by new customers, sustaining the partnership requires a lot of effort.

"When I opened my restaurant, we had planned for it to be mostly delivery, and we'd planned for the commissions that these guys charge," one restaurant owner from Malviya Nagar, Delhi, who had opened a Kerala-food place told us. "But I hadn't factored in that they all have different requirements for things like photos, you need to put a lot of time and money into getting your things done the way they want. Every now and then the ordering system doesn't work properly or a payment doesn't happen, and it takes too long to deal with."

Others complain about the large commissions, which they say eat into the profitability of each order. A few even try and avoid aggregators altogether. Many are also changing pricing for online orders - whether it's by adding the equivalent of "packing charges" or simply having higher rates on the delivery menus.

"Our rates are 15 percent lower if you're ordering directly," explained the owner of a Bengali restaurant in HSR Layout, Bengaluru. "But we only deliver to houses within the locality, because our delivery boys go out on cycles. On the other hand, the Uber and Swiggy guys come on bikes, and so they're able to go much further." "They say that it's like a marketing cost, and without them, I wouldn't have gotten those orders," he added. "But if I charge the same rate, I go into a loss on that order."

Customers want more too

It's not all good for customers either. Increased costs, as restaurants adjust pricing to compensate for commissions, aren't exactly appealing. To deal with this, the "food tech" companies are getting into the food business, for better or for worse. As customers, that means more options so it shouldn't really be a problem. Unfortunately, more options do not translate into better options.

You know how there are times when you flick through Netflix's catalogue for twenty minutes and then decide not to watch TV after all? Food ordering has become a bit like that, except afterwards you've gone from hungry to starving.

And it gets worse, thanks to exclusivity deals. If your favourite burger place is only available on Uber Eats, while the best waffles in your area are only found on Zomato Order, then you'll be flipping through the different apps for a while, trying to track down something good.

In all of this, at least anecdotally, the number of times an order gets delayed, or some item goes missing, or the packaging was badly done and your butter chicken gravy just mixed with your gulab jamuns just keeps rising.

Both customers and restaurants have enough reasons to be unhappy with delivery platforms. As the industry circles back to a competitive environment like in early 2015, the question that has to be answered is which of them will be able to deliver on at least one of those fronts.

Who else is trying to improve food hygiene?

According to theCatering Policy of Indian railways, which was issued on February 27, 2017, to create a distinction between food preparation and distribution, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) has been asked to carry out unbundling.

IRCTC is setting up new kitchens and is upgrading existing ones in order to improve the quality of food preparation. Also, other than base kitchens and kitchen units, IRCTC will manage the Food Plaza, Fast Food Units as well as the Food Courts.

However, the minor static units (catering stall /milk stalls/ trolleys) are to be managed by the Zonal Railways.

Here are the initiatives taken by IRCTC to upgrade the catering services:

In a bid to upgrade the quality of meal served to the railway passengers, the menu of prepaid trains has been revised. The focus is on quality over quantity, which means that some of the items on the menu have gone off and the quantity of food served has also been reduced. In order to enable the railway passengers to have variety in meals, ‘Ready to Eat’ meals have also been introduced.

The railways has introduced meal trays of bio-degradable material with airtight sealed cover for packing of meals from kitchens in selected Rajdhani and Duronto Express trains.

In an attempt to upgrade and to bring professionalism in catering services, the railways has fixed the qualification and experience in the relevant field for on board staff.

Indian Railways has also introduced hand sanitizers and the same is provided to the travelling passengers before service of a meal. Additionally, the usage of hand gloves has been made mandatory by the railways.

For on-board monitoring of catering services in mobile units, IRCTC has also deployed supervisors. Indian Railways has provided the staff with pre-installed complaint/feedback monitoring application on Tablets. Also, for real-time monitoring, CCTV cameras have been installed in base kitchens.

The railways has also upgraded 16 base kitchens with modern and mechanised equipments. Also, for audit of food safety, hygiene and sampling of the cooked food as well as raw material used for the preparation of meals, Food Safety Supervisors have been deployed in base kitchens.

The Indian Railways has also introduced service trolleys in Rajdhani and Duronto Express trains for smooth service in trains to the travelling passengers.

To avoid overcharging of meal by service providers, the railways has implemented billing by POS machines in selected mobile units initially under IRCTC. Also, the other mobile units are also being covered by the railways progressively.

For service and production staff of service providers, the railways has introduced new uniforms.

The railways has also facilitated Train Side Vending (TSV) services through refreshment rooms, ‘Jan Aahars’ and cell kitchens.

Recently, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State of Railways Rajen Gohain, mentioned that IRCTC has taken over almost all units in a phased manner. Further to this he also stated that the procedure for allotment of contracts for running various stalls at railway platforms has been simplified.

How else is FSSAI trying to improve hygiene?

A Tool Kit

Seeking to promote safe and healthy food, the FSSAI is providing a training tool kit to health workers at the proposed 1.5 lakh wellness centres under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme for raising public awareness on the issue at the grass root levels.

FSSAI has also launched a national campaign - The Eat Right Movement - with health and wellness centres to integrate its existing initiatives 'Safe and Nutritious Food' (SNF) at schools, home and workplace as well as food fortification, its CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said. "Under this movement, we have developed a tool kit for health workers as well as citizens. This will be made available and integrated to 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres. We want to scale up our existing initiatives and reach out to masses," he told .

The Eat Right tool kit would serve as a supplementary engagement resource to be mainstreamed in the national nutrition and public health programs, he said, adding that the focus is on preventive healthcare through social and behavioral change on eating safe and healthy food.

FSSAI's Chief Management Service Officer Madhavi Das said the tool kit has clear and simple message on eating healthy food and avoiding food with high fat, sugar and salt. It also includes components on eating safe such as maintaining hygiene and sanitation and food adulteration. "We are also bringing out TV commercial as well as posters to spread awareness about eating safe and healthy food," she said.

The tool kit is designed to provide food safety and nutrition messages for citizens in an interesting and engaging manner. It aims to train frontline health workers, under the Ayushman Bharat, ASHA and Anganwadi schemes, to deliver these messages effectively to prevent non-communicable diseases like diabetes, obesity and heart ailments, and avoid food borne diseases. "Healthy diet is one of the key responses to the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases," Das said.

Under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the government aims to open 1.5 lakh health and wellness centre by 2022, which would be equipped to treat host of diseases, including blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and old-age illness.

A Rating System

As part of a pilot project covering Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur, the FSSAI is launching a hygiene plus rating system for quick service restaurants, food chains and joints. The restaurants will essentially be assessed on parametres such as disposal of excess food, hygiene practices, water management and work towards promoting healthy eating habits.

“The idea is to make consumers aware. Restaurants will start complying if a customer is affected by the hygiene standards of a food joint,” said Pallavi Darade, commissioner, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “The framework has been prepared by the central government. We will have to coordinate with other government agencies and licensing authorities to ensure that a cleanliness standard is maintained. Declaring the hubs as clean street food hubs can take months,” Darade said.

The FDA has selected four food hubs in Maharashtra — Saras Baug in Pune, Juhu and Girgaum Chowpatty in Mumbai, and Futala Lake in Nagpur— to train street hawkers on hygiene practices, sanitation and healthy cooking habits.

Based on the parametres, as many as 30 restaurants — 10 in Pune, 15 in Mumbai and five in Nagpur — have been rated on a scale of five till now. “The concept will be expanded across India and we will the certification mandatory…,” said Pawan Agrawal, CEO, FSSAI. He said hygiene rating will also influence the decision-making process of the customer. “We will also judge a restaurant on transparency — whether it’s an open kitchen or has an easy access,” Agrawal added.

As part of the project, the medical condition of the staff will also be reviewed every six months. The restaurant’s handling of surplus food, hygiene and sanitation practices, nutritional status of food items, complaint management, waste water management and transparency in food preparation in kitchens will play a significant role in the rating process, said Agrawal. Focus will be laid on open kitchens to ensure that food preparation is hygienic, he added.

Stricter Penalties

The FSSAI on June 26, 2018 recommended stringent punishment for those adulterating food products following a Supreme Court order. Now, those adulterating food products could face life imprisonment and penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh.

The recommendations are the part of amendments proposed by the FSSAI to amend the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The regulator has proposed a total of 100 amendments to the Act and has sought public comments by July 2, 2018.

The draft proposal recommends insertion of Section 59 in the Act that states the punishment for the food adulterers. It calls for punishment of 7 years, which could be extended up to life imprisonment besides a fine of Rs 10 lakh, if individuals or businesses intentionally add adulterants to food products.

It suggested creation of a 'Food Safety and Nutrition Fund' to support promotional and outreach activities among food businesses and consumers. It proposed setting up of the state food safety authorities to enforce the law in letter and spirit.

It proposed increase in the punishment for obstructing, impersonating, intimidating and threatening and assaulting a food safety officer. It recommended imprisonment of not less than 6 months and up to two years, besides penalty of up to Rs 5 lakh. At present, the imprisonment in such cases is up to 3 months and fine is up to Rs 1 lakh.

It proposed that a person convicted under this law will have to pay fees and other expenses incidental to the analysis of any food or food contact article and any other reasonable expenses incurred by the prosecution.

The other amendments include regulation of exported food products under the FSS Act. Presently, it covers only sale of food items in domestic market and also imported ones.