Food delivery apps such as Postmates, Uber Eats and Grubhub are continuing to become more and more popular. Rather than needing to go out when a craving strikes in the middle of the night, users of these apps are able to have their food delivered right to their door.
Even fast food restaurants are hopping on the bandwagon and utilizing delivery. It seems like a great concept, but one frightening risk about ordering food through a delivery app has arisen. Some delivery drivers have reportedly tasted customers’ food before delivery, according to Today .
A recent survey conducted by restaurant food distributor US Foods focused on what percentage of the population uses these sort of apps, how long they typically wait for their food and how much they tip.
The survey also looked into the behaviors of delivery drivers themselves and yielded some pretty concerning results. Some 500 different delivery drivers were surveyed and 25 percent of them admitted to sampling a customer’s food before giving it to them. This statistic is enough to cause anyone to hesitate prior to using a delivery app. Not only is sampling a stranger’s food without permission is rude and disgusting, but it is also highly unsanitary and a good way to spread germs.
Postmates was the first of the competing food delivery apps to make a statement regarding the study. A spokesperson for the company released the following statement.
“At Postmates, nothing is more important to us than the safety and well being of our entire community, which is why we require each person who completes a delivery using Postmates to expressly agree that all food and goods delivered will arrive in a tamper free form and in compliance with all applicable food health and safety laws.”
The company went on to say that they take food tampering very seriously and that they have been implementing precautionary measures to prevent violations to customer safety. Such precautions include different food packaging designs that make it harder for drivers to mess with the food.
Some companies even use food safety seals to protect food being delivered. If that seal has been broken by the time a client has received their food, the meal is considered to have been tampered with.
Yep, your food delivery driver is sampling your food https://t.co/mhxCYzGYjy
— New Country 107.9 YYD (@1079YYD) July 31, 2019
In addition sampling the food, others that used food delivery apps claimed other negative experiences. For example, their delivery driver left their food outside instead of showing up at the door as requirements demand.
