Citizen Journalism: How grading system at restaurants will help consumers to make informed choices about eating out

NewsMeter has always been at the forefront of highlighting people's problems, celebrating the common person's success, and encouraging people to live their dreams. We are trying to become a bridge between the government and the people. To take this initiative forward, we are introducing a citizen journalism concept This story is part of the initiative.

Hyderabad: The task force team of the Telangana Commissioner of Food Safety inspected 83 restaurants and eateries in 42 days.

Inspections were held from April 16 to May 27. Beginning June 1, the department will be issuing fines to the places where violations were found.

This exercise has triggered a widespread discussion on the quality of food being served by city eateries and above all the health of the citizens. It is still unknown if these raids have deterred people from eating outside but has surely given hotels/restaurants a run for their businesses.

In response to these raids, a Hyderabad citizen Satish Reddy has written an open letter to the Commissioner of Food Safety.

Dear CFS, Telangana,

First of all, thank you very much! We finally see CFS in action in Telangana after a very long time. This is a welcome change that not only benefits consumers but also encourages restaurants and other food service providers to maintain high standards.

Moreover, you have been very transparent about inspections, which we never saw earlier. We have also seen a drastic increase in the number of inspections spanning various kinds of establishments.

I sincerely appreciate your efforts here, but I see some gaps that I would like to point out, along with some suggestions to make the process more efficient and useful.

Gaps:

There is no publicly and easily available history of violations of any establishments (including restaurants). Even after following your handle, after a month I won't be able to remember which restaurant had serious violations.

I see that you have been doing multiple inspections in a day and posting the details of violations on Twitter/media notes. However, people or even the media often do not differentiate between severe and minor violations, and news outlets tend to portray all the restaurants under the same heading, which could hurt business with very minor violations.

Generally, food safety inspections should increase customer confidence in eating out, but after all your efforts, it has become more of scaremongering.

I haven't heard of people taking food safety training seriously, and many restaurants and street vendors aren't even aware of them.

Suggestions:

Instead of just listing out the violations, have a points system and do the grading appropriately. I have attached a sample grading (like OK, Good, Excellent) that is being followed in other parts of the world.

Ensure that all restaurants display this rating chart publicly at their entrance. Customers will then be able to make informed decisions based on this.

Make sure that these food ratings are uploaded on your website and are easily available for public viewing.

Ensure that these safety ratings are regularly updated and displayed on food delivery apps like Zomato & Swiggy.

Incentivize and ensure more people (including street vendors) attend food safety training.

In some cases, I feel establishments have prior information about inspections. Make sure they are completely random and no advantage is given.

Please add a provision to lodge online complaints against any establishment (QR code on publicly displayed certificates and also a link on Zomato/Swiggy).

I hope you will consider these suggestions to maximize your impact.

Author - Satish Reddy

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of NewsMeter.