In an age of convenience, getting food is just a click away. There's a surge of online food vendors who have moved past the brick-and-mortar, transforming smartphones into instant restaurants. We can order jollof rice from a kitchen in Surulere or suya from a corner grill in Wuse with a few taps. But behind this convenience lies a crucial truth we often overlook: the people running these unseen kitchens are not just entrepreneurs but custodians of public health.
The food-tech revolution has lowered the barriers to entry for thousands of cooks, bakers, and grillmasters across different locations in Nigeria. These days, it is easy to romanticise the digital marketplace as a driver of youth employment and small business empowerment, and rightly so. Yet, as we celebrate this boom, we must confront a sobering reality: foodborne illnesses don't care whether your meal came from a five-star hotel or a WhatsApp vendor. Hygiene is non-negotiable.
The average consumer rarely asks: Where is this food prepared? Is the water clean? Are the utensils sanitized? These are the questions that health inspectors would ask at brick-and-mortar restaurants.
But for many online food vendors, regulation remains light-touch, or worse, non-existent.
In a country where Malaria, cholera, typhoid, and food poisoning are still prevalent, this blind spot is rather dangerous.
This isn't a call to shut down online food vendors. Quite the opposite. It is a call to raise the standard -- to recognize that anyone who feeds the public, whether online or offline bears a significant public health responsibility. If you're feeding ten people a day, you are a mini-caterer. If you're feeding 100, you are already running a restaurant with that comes the responsibility to maintain the best hygiene.
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Government agencies and health bodies must start paying closer attention to this evolving food ecosystem. Certification and training for online food vendors should be made more accessible and incentivised, not punitive. Food safety shouldn't be a bureaucratic nightmare; it should be part of the business DNA. Likewise, platforms that host these vendors -- whether Instagram, ChowDeck, or Bolt Food -- must take responsibility too.
Just as online business management platforms like Shopnest Africa vet sellers, food platforms must vet cooks.
The thing is, regulation alone won't fix the system. Consumers too have a role to play, they must become more discerning. It's time to stop choosing vendors based solely on mouth-watering photos or influencer endorsements. Ask the right questions. Demand transparency. Reward clean, safe practices with loyalty.
To the online food vendors out there: you are more than chefs, you are gatekeepers. The choices you make behind closed kitchen doors ripple through communities. You have the power to nourish -- or to harm.
And to regulators, platforms, and consumers: the unseen kitchen is real. Let's not wait for a public health crisis before we act. Clean kitchens are not a luxury; they are a necessity.
On the occasion of World Health Day, let's all remember that there would be no hopeful future without a healthy beginning.
We all have a stake in what's on our plates. Let's make sure it's safe.
