Before Ordering Food Online, Read this!

‘Wife: What should I make for dinner?

Husband: Don’t make anything today, it’s too hot! We’ll order from outside. What should I order?

Wife: Whatever you want. Where will you order the food?

Husband: There are so many online food ordering apps, I’ll order from one of them.’

STOP! If you are about to order food online, watch the video below and then decide whether or not you should order food online. This video reveals the truth behind all these online food ordering businesses.

There are so many times when we order food from our favourite restaurants through online food ordering apps. When we open our order, we see our food beautifully packed in clean boxes complete with tissue paper.  But, as they say, appearances can be deceptive. Have you ever wondered about how the food you have ordered online is prepared?

First, let’s understand how your online food order reaches you. The flowchart below outlines the process of how your online food order reaches you.

Online food ordering apps work in a way very similar to the way in which apps such as Ola and Uber work.  

As soon as you place an order through your chosen food ordering app, the app informs your chosen restaurant about your order through their restaurant partner app. Delivery boys near your chosen restaurant are also immediately informed about the order placed. The delivery boy who accepts the order delivery request first, is given the responsibility of delivering your food order. Once your food order is ready, the delivery boy picks up your order from the restaurant and delivers it to your doorstep.

After watching the video, you must be wondering how to protect your family and yourself from having food that is made with spoilt ingredients and that is prepared in an unhygienic environment. It is very important to take care of this in order to make sure that the food you receive is healthy and clean. Here are some ways in which you can do so:

1) Use Well-Known Food Ordering Apps

Online businesses are booming today. Everyday, a new app enters the market. In fact, small vendors and sellers have also started to introduce their own apps in order to grab a slice of the ever-growing e-commerce market.

Intelligently choose the apps that you would like to have on your smartphone. Always trust a well-known app and be sure to check the ratings and user reviews of that app before downloading it.

2) Order Food from Places that you have seen yourself

You cannot even imagine the lengths to which people have gone to make money! If you fall sick after consuming food or even if eating some food proves to be fatal for you, people will be least bothered because for them profit is always the bottomline.

A small room, cooking utensils and equipment and ingredients-and you have a full-fledged restaurant on your hands. Make it a point to always order food from a restaurant that you have seen and where you have dined before.

3) What you See is not True

You must have seen mouth-wateringly delicious pictures of Chole Bhature and Butter Chicken on food ordering apps, but these food items look good only in the pictures. Once the food is delivered to your house, you can easily see the difference between the picture of the food and the food that you have actually received.

In restaurants, ingredients are always stored in the fridge or the freezer. It takes at least one hour for any frozen food to reach room temperature.  But some restaurants, in their quest to deliver food within a time frame of 30 minutes or so, cook frozen food on a high flame in order to ensure on-time delivery of food.

So be vigilant and be alert while ordering food online!  

Riya Aggarwal