Call centers are terrific for handling phone orders smoothly and accurately, but their very necessity means a restaurant operation likely has a delivery operation. And when food leaves a restaurant's premises, there's always the potential for product contamination due to temperature changes between preparation and consumption — or even worse, deliberate manipulation.
Several years ago, one of Ann Reichle's pizza delivery drivers was accused of repeatedly touching a customer's salad before delivery. Since the driver was a good employee and had never been accused of the offense before, Reichle viewed the claim skeptically. And when the same customer accused the driver again, Reichle knew she was scamming her company, two-unit Angelina's Pizza in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Hoping to eliminate the problem before it happened again, she hunted down a solution at a tradeshow: tamperproof seals for food containers. If the seal was broken before the customer received any of Angelina's pizzas, pasta buckets or salads, Reichle had some explaining to do. If not, both she and her customers were confident the product arrived safe.
"Before our driver was accused of it, there were several news stories about delivery drivers spitting on food or doing worse," Reichle said. "I wanted to do everything I could to ensure our customers got a safe product."
Fourteen-unit Mama Fu's Asian House in Austin, Texas, recently ramped up its delivery efforts. And while hot-from-the-wok, tightly packed Asian food is well protected against bacteria-breeding temperature decreases during travel, CEO Randy Murphy said he knows customers often don't store leftovers properly or reheat them fully enough to kill dangerous bacteria.
Currently, Mama Fu's doesn't include reheating recommendations on its carryout boxes, but Murphy acknowledged "those are certainly good ideas." As the company continues to develop its relatively nascent delivery service, he said it's possible such instructions would be added, in addition to tamperproof seals.
In the past few years, at least one pizza delivery bag manufacturer has developed temperature-sensitive stickers that change colors to let customers know their pie is piping-hot upon arrival. Reichle said she likes the idea of the temperature indicator but believes if temperature is managed correctly in the store, the journey to the customer won't create a problem.
"The good thing about foods like pizza and pasta is that they're made to order and they hold heat well for a long time," said Reichle, who also uses tamperproof seals on her cold items. Delivering food within a manageable delivery area eliminates problems, too, she added. "No, we've never had a food inspector ride along with our delivery drivers to see what temperature the order is when it arrives, and that tells me they believe we can manage it safely on our end."