There is little doubt that BBC’s consumer advice program, Watchdog, plays an important role in supporting viewers who report problems with traders and retailers. However, one has to wonder whether a popular, and regularly, running show might have trouble continually finding people and companies to “expose” and instead simply look for the worst in whatever story comes along.

The show recently covered Just Eat (Series 31 Episode 6) and watching the reporting unfold I couldn’t help but think – was the reporting in this story really fair?

Just Eat, an online takeaway food delivery service, provides a central point for ordering food from local vendors. Food vendors pay a small fee to be listed on the site and include food menus and Just Eat take a commission from sales. Just Eat don’t make the food themselves instead they simply link people who sell food to people who want to buy food. So, should Just Eat, be held accountable for the food that is delivered? Some people think so, according to a report in “The Mirror” a councillor of the Local Government Association was quoted as saying “Just Eat are ­responsible for the restaurants they advertise online”.

Let’s put this into context. Through our front door, on a regular basis, we receive all manner of glossy “local magazines” that often include directories of trades people and other services, including food delivery services, but is the glossy magazine responsible for the work or food provided? If we phone a plumber we saw advertised in a glossy magazine and they do a terrible job do we complain to the magazine and demand to know why they didn’t check the work of the plumber? My guess is we don’t.

Anne Robinson says at the beginning of the show “Ordering a takeaway from Just Eat – good luck in finding the restaurant”. But, isn’t one of the advantages of ordering online that you don’t need to actually find the restaurant?

One of the key points in including Just Eat on the consumer affairs show was that Watchdog discovered some of the food outlets listed on the Just Eat website were not seemingly at the locations specified. Worse still, as the show described, some food outlets were located on, wait for it, yes, industrial estates. Pretty shocking stuff I’m sure you will agree, I mean, food … prepared in a unit on an industrial estate?

“Does the restaurant actually exist?” – the summary for the show describes. Well, we still don’t know as the show focused on Just Eat and not on any of the “fake” food providers.

Also, the show highlighted some food outlets were operating from residential locations. Surely, the problem is not where the food comes from but whether the food is fit to eat and whether the vendor is registered with the local authority? Holding the necessary food hygiene certificates is essential and whilst this was mentioned briefly on the show it was largely glossed over in favour of footage of industrial estates and splashing the name Just Eat over our screens with the term “fake” used a number of times to describe some of the food outlets.

Also, this was apparently the result of a nationwide investigation, or “Manchester, London, and Glasgow” – and three other cities (Leeds, Cardiff, Wolverhampton), as the BBC website describes. Of this investigation 156 restaurants were checked (over 42% of these were located in just one of the cities mentioned) and just 7 were not at the addresses specified with no real investigation shown as to why these seven restaurants were not at the places identified. In three of the cities mentioned all the advertised restaurants “are precisely where they say they are” – so the presenter told us.

Only one “restaurant” in Manchester mentioned named directly – although this isn’t a restaurant – it’s a takeaway.

Come on Watchdog. Finding a food delivery service on an industrial estate surely isn’t enough, on its own, to justify the big finger? After all, in our local town, we have a well known Pizza delivery company that operates from an industrial estate (though it looks more of a warehouse than a hut these days!), and they have a Food Hygiene Rating of 5 (Very Good).

Check Food Hygiene Ratings Easily Online

If we head into a fast food establishment do we first ask to see all relevant food safety and hygiene documentation? Probably we should, but in reality we probably don’t.

However, the situation is made considerably easier when you go online. You can easily check the Food Hygiene rating of a food vendor on the Food Standards Agency website before ordering anything and I would assume Just Eat will look to incorporate data from the FSA website through the UK Food Hygiene Rating Data API. In addition one would hope Just Eat will check with local authorities that food vendors are registered with their local Environmental Health Office.

What do you think? Was the inclusion of Just Eat justified?