Cyprus’s Health Services have warned food delivery platforms including Foody and Wolt of a significant rise in consumer complaints about the condition of delivery boxes, calling on restaurants, food businesses and platforms to tighten controls and enforce food safety standards.
The warning comes amid a structural oversight gap: delivery drivers are not employees of the platforms but self-employed partners, and the majority are foreign nationals without permanent residency in Cyprus. The Health Services said this creates “legal difficulties in registering them as food businesses or as employees of food businesses, making them very difficult to inspect.”
Most complaints centre on the boxes fixed to the back of motorcycles and mopeds. Consumers have reported boxes that are “very dirty with accumulated food residue” and in several cases “holed or failing to close properly, and generally worn and in poor condition,” according to the letter.
Separately, the Health Services noted complaints about drivers storing personal items — including clothing and shoes — alongside food orders in the same box, and leaving vehicles exposed during downtime without adequate protection from rodents and insects.
The Health Services wrote to the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) and the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEVE), saying food delivery via online platforms had expanded rapidly in Cyprus over the past six to seven years, with the majority of food and retail businesses now relying on them to serve customers.
Recommendations
The Health Services said food safety in delivery was “a collective responsibility of all, and not only of the control authorities,” with both platforms and food producers bearing responsibility for ensuring correct procedures are followed. Restaurants and food businesses should be aware that consumers who spot a violation are likely to associate it with the restaurant rather than the delivery driver, the letter warned.
Restaurant owners are urged to carry out regular checks on delivery boxes, monitor drivers’ basic hygiene when orders are collected, and report any irregularities to the platforms immediately. Allowing drivers to use their facilities to wash their hands is listed as good practice, as is quickly cleaning the inside of the box before each order is placed in it.
The letter says platforms, despite acting as intermediaries, are responsible for ensuring that partner food businesses and delivery drivers follow correct food safety procedures. In cases of serious violations, the Health Services recommend businesses refuse to hand over the order and require a different driver. For repeated minor failings, businesses should demand immediate improvement from the platform.
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