Picture the scene: it’s a Friday night, you’ve had a rough week, and you fancy a dirty takeaway to set the weekend off right.
After 20 minutes of deliberating whether you want a pizza or a Chinese followed by a 45-60 minute wait for the food to arrive, that knock on the door finally comes and you rush down to answer it.
You take your 43,781 bags of food (calories don’t count at the weekend) while thanking the delivery driver profusely for dropping your food off safely and rush upstairs to finally enjoy your pizza/chow mein/[insert delicious meal here].
Now that I’ve set the scene let me just throw a spanner in the works and ask what you would do if you thought your delivery driver had eaten some of your food before dropping it off?
Like, what if they just grabbed a handful of your chips or took some pineapple off your pizza or, God forbid, they took an actual bite out of whatever you’ve ordered?
Okay, maybe I went too far with the last one but delivery drivers eating people’s food before dropping it off is apparently a fear many of us have when it comes to ordering takeaways – and now it seems it’s a legitimate one.
A new study carried out by distributor US Foods, via Restaurant Business Magazine, found approximately 21 per cent of customers worry the driver might have nibbled on their food en route. In fact, 85 per cent of those polled said they would like restaurants to adopt tamper-proof packaging because of this fear.
Not only that, but the study proved people were right to worry, because more than a quarter (28 per cent) of delivery drivers admitted they were unable to resist taking a bite before dropping the food off at its final destination. Yikes.
The results also brought to light a number of concerns regarding the third-party delivery service, primarily the issue of how hot the food is when it arrives.
This was the top complaint unearthed by the research, with 17 per cent of consumers feeling the food isn’t hot enough after being delivered by a third-party. A close second was the issue of the order arriving late, with 16 per cent complaining about this.
But let’s not forget the issue of someone eating your food, because that’s why you clicked on the article in the first place, right?
As weird as it is to think someone might be nibbling on your food before you’ve even got your hands on it, I think it’s fair to say we’ll continue to get our takeaways delivered to our front door.
I mean, what’s the alternative? Putting some clothes on and dragging ourselves outside before getting to the takeaway and standing in a queue for 20 minutes?
Yeah, right.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).