Dhaka July 29 (BDNEWS) - Fast paced business of fast food is facing a setback in capital Dhaka as the clients fell significantly following the ongoing crackdown by mobile courts.
"The news of serving food with substandard oil affected our goodwill ... customers got suspicious about our food quality," Mohiuddin Alamgir, Assistant Manager of Helvetia's Baily Road branch told BDNEWS.
He said the clients are questioning our goodwill, admitting a fall in the number of their clients.
A mobile court of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) raided the first generation fast food shops in Baily Road July 25 and found three renowned food shops engaged in using harmful elements, such as substandard oil and dyes, in the foods.
Helvetia was among the three and was fined Tk 800 for using substandard oil in the foods. The Swiss Bakery was fined Tk 8,000 and Euro Hut Tk 800.
Tuhin Khan, an on duty cashier of Wimpy's Gulshan Branch, said: "Our business fell by at least 10 percent after Sunday's raid by the mobile court."
Wimpy was fined Tk 10,000 for serving ketchup without BSTI labels.
Operators of several other fast food shops, requesting anonymity, said they are facing lot of questions from the clients. They are suspicious about the quality of foods being served and it would take time to restore the confidence again, they added.
The fast food lovers were angry at the reports of using harmful and substandard elements in foods.
"I felt cheated when I came to know that they are serving substandard food," said Yousuf Chapal, a student of a private university, who used to go to fast food shops almost every day.
Mahfuz Sobhan, an executive of a private mobile company, said: "I usually used to take fast food during lunch time. I stopped taking it since Thursday, when I found in newspapers burgers with fungus being sold."
Shamsul Alam Kajal, General Manager of the Helvetia, admitted that following the mobile court operation, different branches of Helvetia witnessed a decline in sales.
Helvetia has six outlets in the city.
Since 1990 fast food started becoming popular among the city people leading to mushroom growth of shops offering fast foods. A number of fast food chains with foreign collaboration were also launched in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh amid growing popularity of such food among the urban population.
BDNEWS/1900 hrs.
