Amidst gaps in regulation and monitoring, the hygiene of India’s restaurants and cloud kitchens is shrouded in uncertainty
Bengaluru: Having waited a while for her peak-hour dinner order, Harshitha* tore through the ‘tamper-proof’ delivery tapes and eagerly opened up the boxes. A few bites later, to her horror, she caught sight of movement — a cockroach was running through the grains of rice in her meal.
The combo, ordered from an outlet of a popular delivery-only chain of restaurants, was on a ‘buy anything for Rs 139’ discount. “I was nauseous and could not keep any food down for the next two days. I eventually spent a day in the hospital from dehydration due to the food poisoning,” says Harshitha, a 29-year-old IT professional based in Bengaluru.
Experiences of this nature are shockingly commonplace in the review sections on Google and delivery apps and in news headlines across India. Customers report having found different kinds of pests and contaminants in their food — from live snails to pieces of metal.
With an increasing number of complaints, several states have seen efforts by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and local food regulation authorities to zero in on public health violations at restaurants. Inspections and testing have yielded worrying findings — maggots in a Mumbai kitchen, expired and mold-covered ingredients at kitchens in Hyderabad and even shawarma samples in Kerala containing Salmonella, resulting in the death of a 22-year-old man.
Two weeks ago, a round of inspections of shawarma joints across Karnataka too found eight out of 17 samples contaminated with bacteria that “could cause severe health issues”.
A 2021 study published in ScienceDirect estimated that India sees around 100 million foodborne disease outbreaks every year, and 1,20,000 related fatalities. West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat reported the maximum average outbreaks. Researchers also estimate that if food safety standards remain at their current level, the number of outbreaks will increase to 150 million cases by 2030.
There are three main types of contamination, explains Nimish Bhatia, a chef, consultant and mentor. “The first is physical contamination, where a foreign object is introduced into the food. Common contaminants are hair, nails or pieces of plastic. The second is chemical contamination, which could occur when lemon is prepped in a copper vessel leading to a reaction, or if dishwashing liquid is not washed out completely. We also have biological contamination, which occurs when food goes bad, becomes old, or gets fungus.”
Under present standards mandated by the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, food business operators (FBOs) are required to register with the FSSAI. Businesses that make an annual turnover of Rs 12 lakh or less are supposed to apply for a ‘registration’, FBOs that make more than this amount need to obtain a ‘licence’. As of 2019, only 4,67,000 out of about 2.49 million — about 18.7% — food business operators (FBOs) in the country had an FSSAI licence, according to a National Restaurant Association of India report.