Food Apps Blog - 2022

Future of Food Industry after COVID-19

The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus has said that “Change is the only constant in life”. This statement has possibly never been truer as it is in this ongoing crisis of coronavirus outbreak. The health and economic news have changed every hour throughout this crisis. The food industry is likely to experience changes and will be forced to adapt to new scenarios. Some of the predictions are explained below: 

1. More Emphasis on Health, Hygiene, and Sanitization: As lockdowns were announced in multiple places around the world, restaurants were only open for takeaway services. Food Delivery Apps such as Deliveroo, food panda, Grubhub, etc have been delivering food and groceries in the lockdown although they have observed a decline in customers’ orders.
   
   The reason for this decline was mainly concern about health and hygiene as customers are more concerned about the health and sanitization during this pandemic and this concern is likely to last after the pandemic comes to an end or when the restaurants start opening once again for dinning.
   
   The restaurants need to adopt more strict hygiene and sanitization practices because everyone will be concerned about whether it is safe to order food and get it delivered at your doorstep? The person bringing the order is following hygiene and sanitization practices or not?
   
   Major food delivery apps are clearly mentioning and informing their customers about the hygiene standards of the restaurants on their platforms.
   
   The use of masks, hand sanitization at regular intervals, safe packaging, and temperature monitoring; all these norms are followed by all the staff members from the kitchen staff to the delivery person.
   
   Restaurants with good hygiene rating on food delivery apps have observed less impact on their business as compared to those not having good hygiene ratings. Also, when restaurants will start opening again then diners will prefer to visit those restaurants where they think the hygiene and sanitization conditions are up to the mark.
   
   Thus, we can say, the main lesson we all learned from this pandemic is more and more emphasis on health, hygiene, and sanitation.
   
2. Zero Wastage: When the food and restaurant industry will start again it is anticipated that the restaurants will find new and innovative ways to feed people. During this difficult time, one more thing that we have learned is to survive in what we have.
   
   We have realized the importance of food during quarantine situations so restaurants will be more responsible for cooking. The dining scene will be back soon but with a changed behavior of diners who will be more focused on hygiene and sanitization. Restaurants will also use zero wastage of food practices in their kitchen.  
   
3. More Focus on Fresh Diets: People will be more inclined towards fresh seasonal veggies, ingredients that are rich in antioxidants. People will prefer to have local ingredients so imported ingredients will be replaced. Fresh turmeric, ginger, citrus fruits like orange will be definitely part of people’s daily diet as all these are known to boost immunity. They will prefer hot food more as compared to cold food because hot food aids in digestion and cold food reduces digestive fire. 
   
4. Changes in Menu: Shorter menus will be preferred more and the restaurants will frequently change menus. Fear of infection by the virus is urging consumers towards such food and beverages that are known to build and boost immunity. Lemon, strawberries, avocado, green tea are a few ingredients and items that can occupy a place in a restaurant’s menu. 
   
   Implement digital food menu’s for your restaurant or QR based food ordering system in place of paper menus’. It will reduce your overheads also customer feels more secure due to less interaction with the human touch to the paper menus.
   
5. Growth of Delivery Services: Food Delivery app services have become as important as takeout because people are avoiding public places and are staying at home. So, the importance of delivery services will rise for both the restaurants as well as to the diners.
   
   Restaurants will either start delivering on their own or will use third-party food delivery services like UberEats, Grubhub, DoorDash, etc. But you should have your own branded food ordering and delivery app to make your brand and save hefty commissions charged by third parties.
   
   After the pandemic is over the takeout and delivery services will grow and that too with more importance on safety and sanitization. This will include, tamper-proof packaging for food orders, the use of antimicrobial materials, and cleaning and sanitization at the venue. As the delivery and takeout are likely to increase after the restaurants re-open again, the designs of the restaurants may be done differently.
   
   Maybe the space in dining rooms will get smaller and maybe there may emerge the concept of sharing kitchen space at a lower cost in order to ease the more profitable delivery orders.
   
   Delivery services will continue to use the contactless delivery in which the rider picks the food order from the restaurants and places the order on a clean surface at the doorstep of the customers; at a place told by the customer and stands at 6 feet away until the customers collects the order or the delivery person texts the customers that your order has arrived at you can collect it without any touch with the delivery person.   
   
6. More Conscious Dining: The coronavirus pandemic has made the diners as well as restaurants and chefs more conscious in terms of utilizing the available resources in the best possible manner like materials, seasonality, and have more respect for the food you get and the people who are producing it.
   
   Restaurants can place a QR code stand on each table. So customers can use QR enabled web ordering system to place orders without the need of waiters to be called.
   
   As we all know that it has been a difficult time for all of us so what we need to do is just be more careful. Restaurants can adapt thermal checking at their entrances to reassure guests that you are taking measures to stop any kind of contamination at your doorstep. 

Well at last what we can say as a final note is when the crisis is unfamiliar; all people can do is to take precautions to stay safe. As the restaurants will start to open again then smaller formats with fewer expenses, home delivery services, social distancing, changed menus, value-added dining will be the new norms for eating-out.

Many restaurants will run in half of their capacity and allow fewer workers in order to maintain social distancing. Of course, this is going to hit their profitability and it is going to be very challenging for the food and restaurant businesses to survive for at least 3 months after the pandemic ends because people might not be much comfortable moving out. But as we don’t know when things will turn normal as they were before so everyone has to find one or the other way to survive in this difficult period.