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start from 2021
What Happens When Food Delivery Is Everywhere?
Have you ever ordered food through food delivery apps or simply through the restaurants’ websites? According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, more than 68% of restaurants and diners offer food delivery service in 2021 since a few people would like to eat out during the pandemic. As a result, due to the COVID-19, the growth of food delivery has become a major trend for customers in Taiwan, which means more and more people tend to order food on their phones via Uber Eats or Foodpanda wherever they are. While it seems that people can gain lots of positive benefits because of food delivery, such as convenience, we still cannot ignore the negative side effects it brings: plastic and air pollution, information security and food safety.
First of all, the waste that food delivery industry produces would lead to plastic and air pollution. According to the vice director of Department of Waste Management, Liou Ruei-Xiang[1] (2021), merely 680 tons of waste were churned out by food delivery industry in early 2021 in Taiwan. “Those waste do harm to our environment,” he said. The reason why food delivery industry creates a great deal of plastic products is that it massively relies on the use of plastic bags, wraps, straws and disposable tableware, and these products would not only threaten wildlife but spread toxins. For example, wild birds and marine animals may ingest those plastic bags and die of it. In addition to this, in order to incinerate those garbage, some hazardous substance, such as Dioxin would be produced, and it will definitely cause air pollution. Eventually, the plastic products food delivery industry produces would harm our environment.
[1] Reference: https://ourisland.pts.org.tw/content/7457 (written by Huang Yi-Jing)
Secondly, food ordering systems might hack or reveal customers’ personal data. Since people tend to order food on their phones via food delivery apps or through restaurants’ websites nowadays, their personal data, such as credit card numbers and addresses stored in those apps and websites may be hacked. For example, the Wowprime Corporation in Taiwan is accused of major data breaches recently, causing 20 victims scammed for nearly 370 million dollars because their sensitive data was hacked. Moreover, some celebrities’ addresses were also revealed by couriers. All in all, it is not only difficult to keep those sensitive data safe but also challenging to ensure that the couriers keep information confidential because they are transmitted and frequently stored across networks.
Thirdly, customers should be aware of food safety issues. Both couriers and restaurants need to make sure whether the home-delivered food stay at the correct temperatures or not. In other words, those food must be handled properly to avoid food poisoning and the growth of germs. However, if couriers receive a large number of orders once, they sometimes leave food under high temperature for too long, which makes food rotten or deteriorate. After customers eat contaminated food, they may suffer from tummy aches, nausea and diarrhea. Moreover, it is difficult for customers to claim compensation for food poisoning from either couriers or restaurants, because it is hard to judge which side should take responsibility for the spoiled food. Therefore, before ordering food via food delivery apps or restaurants websites, customers should check the reviews of the food delivery companies and restaurants.
