In February this year, GrabFood rolled out ‘Grab Hawker Picks’ to selected areas in Singapore and customers can get it delivered to them.
Now, with just a tap, GrabFood users everywhere can have hawker favourites such as Tai Hwa Pork Noodle in Lavender and A Noodle Story at Amoy Street Food Centre.
Hawker food from 70 curated vendors will be delivered from five collection points called, Hawker Hubs, to GrabFood customers, sans the long queues.
These vendors under the Hawker Picks programme typically have long queues during peak hours, while other hawker stalls on GrabFood prepare food on demand.
With the Hawker Picks service, these vendors are now able to reach more customers.
How Your Hawker Food Gets Served To You
Hawkers prepare a set amount of orders at their stalls and then consolidate it at Hawker Hubs, where the food will be stored in industrial food warmers at 70°C, outside of the 5°C to 60°C range for rapid bacteria growth.
After a GrabFood customer places an order, a delivery rider will head to the relevant Hawker Hubs to pick it up and send it to the customer’s address.
As food is prepared in advance, GrabFood will make the food unavailable to order once the items are sold out.
GrabFood customers can order hawker food through the Hawker Picks service during lunch time, 11.30am to 2.15pm, and dinner time, 5.40pm to 8.45pm.
The five Hawker Hubs are located at Bedok, Commonwealth, River Valley, Sembawang, and Serangoon.
Fresh Hawker Food Ensured
Storing food at 70°C are just one of the measures GrabFood has put in place to ensure food quality is not compromised, even if customers receive the meal hours after it is prepared.
Dilip Roussenaly, head of GrabFood Singapore, said they follow food safety guidelines like those of caterers and have obtained the ISO 22000:2018 certification at their Hawker Hubs.
Thermostats of the food warmers are calibrated once a month to make sure they are working optimally, he added.
All Hawker Picks food is timestamped when drivers collect food, and will be served to customers within four hours of pick up from the hawker stall.
After four hours, unsold food will be disposed of.
Meals are typically ordered and delivered within two hours of their arrival at the hub, Roussenaly said.
Food is rarely wasted as the amount of food GrabFood pre-orders from each hawker vendor is tabulated based on “historical data”.
On whether prices of menu items are the same as what consumer pay at the stalls, Roussenaly said they may differ based on factors such as demand, but did not reveal by how much.
Roussenaly noted that some operators have tried to solve the problem of deliver hawker food to consumers using the time-consuming “concierge model where they would send a delivery rider to queue and get food”.
The food-delivery firm is still exploring the concept of shared kitchens.
Featured Image Credit: Grab