Hunger games: Debate over 10-minute food delivery

CHENNAI: Chicken biryani or pav bhaji, a slice of chocolate truffle or a box of ice cream — all delivered to your doorstep in just 10 minutes. A network of restaurants, eateries, and cloud kitchens is competing with response time of 108 ambulances, and the debate between food aggregators and chefs is heating up.

On Friday, Blinkit founder-CEO Albinder Dhindsa posted on X that the food served is free of preservatives and is neither microwaved nor processed. Senior chefs, however, are sceptical. “Fresh food in 10 minutes? It's like somebody is using customer intolerance as a marketing strategy,” says chef Kishore Kumar Neethinathan of Radisson Blu Hotel and Suites GRT Chennai. “It’s possible to serve biryani in 10 minutes because it is prepared in bulk, reheated, and served. But a burger or momo, chicken wings, breaded fish, or chicken can’t be served in 10 minutes unless they are ultra-processed and kept ready to eat.”

Mumbai-based doctor Manan Vora also posted on LinkedIn that for food to be delivered in 10 minutes, it needs to be cooked in three minutes or less. “And they can only achieve this with ultra-processed, ready-to-eat meals. Pre-cooked - frozen - microwaved – delivered.”

Ultra-processed foods undergo extensive industrial processing, often involving multiple steps and numerous artificial ingredients including preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, flavour enhancers, colours and flavours. Fast food, packaged snacks, sugary drinks, and processed meats are examples of ultra-processed foods. These foods are high in refined carbohydrates, sugars, unhealthy fats, and additives. “They contain harmful compounds like Advanced Glycation End Products, formed during high-heat cooking and microwaving, linked to diabetes and other diseases. They include preservatives and additives aimed at extending shelf life but detrimental to overall health,” says Dr Manisha Arora, director of Internal Medicine at the CK Birla Hospital, Delhi.

It’s crucial to distinguish between ultra-processed foods and minimally processed ones like canned beans or frozen foods. For instance, in-flight catering food is blast chilled. Cooked at a temperature above 100 degrees C, it’s then put in the blast chiller, at a temperature between 0-4 degrees C, directly without being exposed to room temperature.

Not all regular cafes and restaurants do this. Leaving cooked food at room temperature or without adequate freezing and then reheating it increases risk of contamination. Consumption of ultra-processed foods has also been linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, doctors say.

Aggregators have their defences. While a Blinkit spokesperson told TOI orders from Bistro kitchens are made fresh using ingredients prepared in a central kitchen and transported in temperature-controlled vehicles, Swiggy's Sidharth Bhakoo said Bolt partners with restaurants excelling in quick turnaround, focusing on dishes with minimal prep time and a 2km delivery radius.

While Chef Koushik S of Eatitude, who admits pre-cooking is inevitable, says people must give food aggregators a chance, Dr Arun Gupta of Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest (NAPi) disagrees. “Nobody can see how restaurants are doing it. They are catering to a very impatient generation which wants everything fast.”

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