by Nurul Natasha Binti Nazaruddin
As the pandemic spreads far and wide, many changes have been brought about with it. In almost every sector of a society, if not all, what was previously normal is now a disorder. Nevertheless, steady steps have been given by the Malaysian government and responsively followed by the public to tackle the disarranging present and the obscured future. However, as we wade through the tide of coronavirus, many unpreventable changes have occurred and must occur. Some of these changes can be found within the expansive industry of food business. Approaching the viewpoint of eatery business owners and food consumers, these are some of the changes the viral outbreak has influenced onto the restaurants, eateries, and food industry during the past few months.
Take-aways
During the time when the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) was first introduced in mid-March, many food businesses which include restaurants, cafes, bakery, and convenient stores nationwide were forced to close and restrict customers from dining-in. With the regulation of a dusk to dawn curfew, food orders could only roll on a limited time period, and only take-aways were allowed, as per the government’s instructions. Although three months and many changes have passed since then, many stores and customers now still have qualms about dining in and making direct contact. Alternatively, many then decidedly opt for having take-aways instead, besides deliveries. Even so, customers and stores must still strictly abide by the regulations in the Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) given by the government.
To effectively practice social distancing, amongst the SOP for taking-away food that customers and premises are to follow are that customers must queue up whilst keeping a distance of at least a meter away from each other; premises are also to record employees’ and customers’ body temperature, as well as their full names, identification and phone numbers upon arrival; premises must provide and customers must make usage of alcohol-based hand sanitizers and hand wash areas; and making as less direct contact as possible is also advisable between employees and customers.
Furthermore, as take-away services become more prominent these days, restaurants are forced to adapt to this change. Ceramic plates and glasses are now stored in and substituted with increasing supplies of paper and plastic containers and cutleries to serve. Consequently, the change might now cause the food industry to become majorly disposable in that case.
Online orders & deliveries
Online ordering has been one of the most essential services throughout our MCO phases. Online ordering, or food e-commerce thrives in such circumstance, owing to the development of the digitization technology. Though we see its promising and strengthening growth in the food industry, food e-commerce is not nearly as convenient if it were not for the riders.
Food delivery riders have always been important to food-lovers pre-Covid19. However, these days, their services are so crucial they are now considered as part of our front-liners, our unsung heroes. During the early phases of the MCO when none but one was allowed out, you could say that surviving was made painless thanks to these heroes.
The operational hours for food delivery in Malaysia have been extended gradually in stages. Now that the conditional MCO and curfew are lifted, customers are allowed to order food for delivery till midnight, whereas before, food deliveries could only operate until 10 pm.
Home-cooked foods
Before working was allowed again by the government, the entirety of Malaysia- minus the front liners- had to be homebound. As a result of that, many people had come to find themselves spending more time in the kitchen than ever before. With all the time in the world then, more and more were fixed on sharing and trying out recipes. Simply put, nearly everyone sorted to cooking their family’s own meals. If you are an avid social media user, you could easily have noticed this trend online. And certainly, this trend should stay. At any given time, wholesome home-cooked meals should always be celebrated, for they are made fresh and additive-free, thus, are always heartening and mostly health-giving.
And due to the rise of home-cooked meals, demands for fresh foods also rose immensely during quarantine. Studies have found that Malaysian food shopping behavior have recently shifted to stocking up vegetables, frozen and dry food items. While wet markets might have been at a disadvantage with the outlet closure directive, personal shoppers and deliverers for fresh foods jumped at the opportunity to meet the overwhelming demands. Such business proved to be very fruitful at a time when all others could not, hence this can be considered as another difference brought by home cooked foods in the food industry.
Road-side stalls/ warungs/ food trucks
As being part of the Asian culture, Malaysians and street foods can have no separation. The preference of having hawker-cooked foods is prominent amongst the citizens of Malaysia, whether it be for having nasi lemak for breakfast, lok lok for lunch, or Ramly burgers for dinner. Sadly, much to Malaysians’ dismay, this culture had to be temporarily closed initially to steer clear of bouts of coronavirus. With the roadside stalls forcibly made inoperable, naturally, thousands of stall owners were struggling to stay afloat. As many primarily depend on this small food business, hawkers and street food sellers have taken a huge financial hit during the pandemic, before the economic stimulus package was revealed.
Fortunately, with the incentives given and the shutdown lifted by the government just recently, roadside stall owners can now breathe sigh of relief and carry on with their selling as per usual. However, these operations are not without conditions. Some precaution and measures must still be observed. For example, although dine-ins are now allowed at hawker stalls, food trucks, or warungs, said premises must arrange the tables to be set two metres away from one another and the chairs one metre away. Owners must also provide hand sanitizers for customers’ usage, and the use of biodegradable tableware is also encouraged. Meanwhile, children below 12 and elderlies above 70 must not be allowed dining in, temporarily.
Thus, even so, partly due to the procedures and the public weariness for contagion, going back to the norm might be difficult for these roadside stall owners and hawkers, for as long as the virus persists.
In consequence to the more-than-hazardous outbreak, the food industry may not be the same anymore for quite some time. Adjustments to an industry as essential and enormous as this may span over for years, if not decades. Food business owners and customers alike must therefore be prepared for the changes and the impact these transitions bring into our livelihood in the coming months and years.
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