Hyderabad restaurants hit out at 'fraud foodies' faking cockroaches in food
Hyderabad's food safety department recently found many food safety violations in restaurants; now customers are taking advantage of the situation to slide in 'foreign objects' into hotel food
Hyderabad restaurants are angry and upset with what they call a growing tribe of ‘fraud foodies’.
Even as Hyderabad's restaurants have recently come under a cloud for a spate of food safety violations, the owners, it seems, have their own challenges with customers.
According to restaurant owners, after the raids by the Food Safety Department in Hyderabad on eateries, customers are deliberately sliding in foreign objects into the restaurant food and threatening to post them on social media. They are arm-twisting them for a free meal or some other compensation, alleged restaurant owners, according to a news report.
Stale prawns, unhygienic conditions
In the last two months, the Food Safety Department had raided 78 eateries, largely upmarket ones, and found unhygienic kitchen conditions. Social media was filled with images, reels and videos of the conditions in these restaurants.
Besides finding 12 kgs of stale prawns, unhygienic conditions at popular Gachibowli restaurants, they also discovered that food handlers did not have medical fitness certificates.
Some food handlers were not wearing headgear while dustbins were left open, and houseflies were observed nearby.
Arm-twisting restaurant owners
However, even as the Food Safety department is cracking down on these restaurants after receiving complaints about food quality, some consumers seem to be taking unfair advantage of their situation.
Now restaurant owners area claim that customers are placing foreign objects in their meals served to them and demand a compensation. They threaten the restaurant that they will call the authorities or post videos on Instagram if the eatery doesn’t comply with their demands, said a report in Telangana Today.
According to the report, one restaurant owner took to Reddit to claim that after the reels of food inspection raids went viral on Instagram, they have been getting a lot of “fraud foodies”.
“But honestly, restaurants have to deal with these idiots who place their own cockroaches in the restaurant food and then cry wolf,” he wrote on Reddit. The customer allegedly threatened to call the authorities and media, while his female friend was taking videos.
The restaurant first apologised and offered to replace his meal. The customer, however, refused to take a compensation of ₹5,000. He only wanted to be served free food everytime he visted.
Food delivery apps also claim to be facing similar harassment from customers.