Here’s what’s cooking in ‘dark’ B'luru cloud kitchens

Umar Sharieef | NT

Bengaluru: The food industry, like many other sectors, has evolved in a big way recently, creating a revolution. One big lifestyle change the present generation has seen is the mushrooming of cloud kitchens across India.

These are restaurants without the dining facility. Food of one’s choice is ordered online and delivered through different options. It may have come as a respite to owners of these food factories not having to maintain bigger spaces, but this has also become a headache for both customers and kitchen owners. While there are multiple benefits that both customers and owners enjoy, there are also issues that they are fighting.

The issues

According to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the statutory body approves registration and licence-based approvals for a cloud kitchen setup. However, these small businesses are mostly registered but lack proper licences, only to escape and run without the FSSAI approval, in non-compliance with safety and other regulations.

While the demand for these online food services has increased manifold, demand for quality food, cleanliness of the kitchen and proper way of handling the food has also increased steeply among customers. Questions over the hygiene of this food and space it is cooked in are springing up among customers nowadays.

In Bengaluru, a lot of customers have taken to social media to complain about the mismanagement of these kitchens as well as the quality of the food. Recently, a Twitter user shared a collection of pictures of a cloud kitchen in Bengaluru, which complained about the “substandard” functioning of the staff while preparing food.

The user posted these pictures, which a delivery executive had clicked and shared on social media. It said, “I work part-time on a food delivery platform. Today, I couldn’t control my mind. I saw the guy in the kitchen put the Momo back in the steamer after it fell on the dirtiest floor I have ever seen. I have no words to say.”

The cloud kitchen in the post is located near HSR Layout and goes by the name Kouzina, which operates as many as twelve brands. Multiple attempts by News Trail to examine the present situation of the venue failed. Most customers, who had previously ordered from this cloud kitchen chain, echoed the same – bad experience.

A Twitter user responded with: “Not surprised. But this could very well also be the case for a regular restaurant’s back-end, which may have a fancy front-end. In the quest to scale up operations, hygiene is often relegated. Scaling up is that much easier for a cloud kitchen than it is for a regular restaurant.”

In a big blow to the particular cloud kitchen, Kouzina, the former employee of the space heaved a sigh of relief as the condition of the kitchen had come out. Replying to the post, the ex-employee said, “I have worked here for a year and had a huge fight with the manager about the cleanliness of the kitchen. I quit right after that.”

“On the burger patty, in the deep freeze, there are a thousand frozen patties broken apart and randomly dumped along with everything else. Once a month, we clean the deep freezer between orders so we take it all out and put it in the open and it defrosts, before we put it back to refreeze.

Lettuce comes once in three days and is never washed but stored in the fridge. Sauce packets are usually bitten by rats. I almost puked once when I saw an employee squeeze sauce through a rat-bitten hole onto a burger,” he said.

Kousalya, name changed on request, said she sometimes depends on the online food service as she has no time to cook for herself, adding she can’t always eat the food that her paying guest accommodation offers.  

“The food from cloud kitchens is much better than other eateries as it tastes like homemade foods. However, the service is now imploding due to the lack of hygiene. Hence, I stopped ordering food from cloud kitchens,” she said.

Health complications

Amid the rising concern about unhygienic cloud kitchens, health experts have warned about serious health complications.

According to dieticians, there are severe health complications including an increased amount of carbs and fats besides affecting the heart. Chances of developing a heart disease or clogged arteries are much more when one consumes frozen food, as it lowers good cholesterol and increases bad cholesterol in the human body because these foods have a lot of sodium, which can increase the cholesterol level in an individual.

Not just that, added preservatives are also among the health implications to worry about even as they keep food edible for days. Increased risk of diabetes and unwa