21/04/2020
Food and grocery delivery are essential services, and in spite of everybody’s best efforts, not fully risk-free. Customers should be cognisant of the risks involved and follow careful package handling practices if they are getting anything home delivered.
The latest FSSAI guidelines make some things very clear – there are no reports or any evidence of COVID-19 being linked to transmission by food. Viruses need to enter living cells in order to be able to replicate. Unlike bacteria, they never replicate in food.
In the case of COVID-19, the main risk involved is human-to-human transmission during food handling – i.e. from close contact with an infected food handler or customer. (This is the primary reason why we launched contactless delivery).
FSSAI recommends three key hygiene practices for food handlers – 1) proper hand hygiene 2) face masks 3) gloves only when directly handling food items (and not any other surface).
Delivery folks are not recommended to wear gloves, because it may give them a false sense of security and result in them not washing hands as frequently as required. Wearing gloves is not a substitute for hand washing.
And we have hand washing/alcohol rub based sanitization stations at our restaurant , covering a m our entire order volume.
We are also diligently checking the temperature of our restaurant staffs, and delivery partners (DPs) multiple times a day at our outlet. We are constantly training our staff and delivery partners on safety and hygiene.
Apart from providing washable and reusable masks, we are continuing to ramp up additional safety measures to minimise the transmission of COVID-19 through our communication and delivery network.
There is no scientific evidence to believe we can completely eliminate the risk. However, we can, together, help minimise the risk even further. Please follow safe package handling practices – irrespective of what delivery you receive at home – food or merchandise.
For example – a) don’t touch the food packaging with your bare hands b) empty the food into your own containers asap and dispose the packaging c) then wash your hands thoroughly d) re-heat the food before you eat for that last millimeter of safety .
Stay safe, practice physical distancing, and only interact with the world outside for your barest essentials. We can and will beat this virus together.
