Is food tampering the new trend?

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE-  Few weeks back, a video went viral on social media a delivery man who was wearing a T-shirt from popular Indian food delivery app Zomato, eating food out of boxed orders then re-sealing them and putting them back into a delivery bag.

On one side it disgusted people but on the other side the video was watched by thousands of them.

After which many questions were raised against the company- long work hours, difficult conditions and poor pay as serious issues faced by delivery employees.

Later, Zomato shared a data stating they have around 150,000 delivery people across India as well as claimed that they receive around 21 million food orders every month. Though, there is no overall financial estimation of how much the industry is worth.

However, Zomato have denied that they ask their delivery partners to meet unreasonable deadlines or impose fines on those who do not meet “targets”.

“All our delivery partners are independent contractors and choose to login (when and for as long as they want to) as per their own will for delivering food through our platform. They are free to go offline and come back online after any duration (be it an hour, day or week). Hence, all partners are advised to go offline when they want to take a break,” a representative from Zomato justified.

This week, another video went viral where an air hostess was recorded taking a bite from all the food boxes which they serve in the airlines.

Previously, many food tampering cases came forward which haunted us to the core where in the early 2000s, Italy was terrorised by the so-called ‘Aquabomber’, who poisoned bottles of mineral water with household bleach and acetone. The perpetrator used a needle to inject the caustic substance into the bottles through their necks.

Sizzlers across Australia shut down after their self-service salad bars after rat poison was found in food at two Brisbane restaurants in 2006. A customer reportedly found the rodenticide in her vegetable soup at a store in the city centre, and pellets were also found in pasta sauce at another area eatery.

These are few of the cases which came in light, but the question is there are many other incidences which go un-noticed and unrecorded. It also raises concern how do one get to know whether the food is tampered? How do one report it? What would be next step? And much more.