Highway Dhabas: Gourmand's Paradise or
Typhoid Trap?

chillibreeze writer — Ritika Goel

Imagine the scenario: You are cruising along in your car along the wide lanes of a highway, feeling slightly weary from the strain of travel. Suddenly a tantalizingly familiar smell hits your nose as you pass by. You hit the brakes and enter a ramshackle place with plastic chairs arranged around a few half broken tables, with a boy or two running around to do your bidding.

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Welcome! You have entered the typical highway “dhaba” or eatery. Now you have the luxury of ordering delicious fried paranthas (bread) for yourself, with mounds of butter temptingly thrown in, at dirt cheap rates. And while you are stomaching these greedily, neither caring about your pockets nor your waistline, you can order refreshing hot chai (tea) for the entire family. There is something for everyone here – from carbonated soft drinks for the slightly road-sick aunt, to cold drinks and chips for the impatient child, to chai or coffee for the weary traveler. And if you want to have a meal, you of course have a wide variety of culinary options to choose from. Dal tadka, Dal makhani, Paneer butter masala, Shahi paneer, Chowmein, Tandoori roti, Aloo parantha, Paneer parantha, Lassi (delicacies of Punjabi cuisine) – is your mouth watering already? You decide to stuff yourself full before continuing your journey. But wait – weren't flies hovering over the bread pakoras (fried fritters) you just ordered?

Trouble in Paradise? Could be. The standard of hygiene that the dhaba-wallahs maintain could well give your meticulously clean granny a heart attack. If one looks beyond enjoying the meal at a dhaba and starts observing, then one can't help noticing the tell tale signs. The dirty cutlery, unwashed hands, grimy fingernails, flies, the mangy dogs hovering nearby – all tell the same story. Staff at a typical highway dhaba doesn’t generally follow basic cleanliness guidelines while cooking and serving food. The cutlery is neither washed properly before serving the next customer, nor are the hands of the cook who is industriously using them to knead the dough. The flies and the animal population constantly hovering around the place in the hope of sampling some of the delicacies is also not a very promising omen for the hygiene conscious. At best one can hope this dedicated army of cats, dogs, flies and rats did not succeed in their missions, but one can never be absolutely sure, given the complete indifference of the dhaba staff. Sometimes the cooks use the cooking spoon to sample their cooking before using it to industriously stir the pans. The list of imaginable horrors is endless. Is it any wonder that eating from such highway dhabas puts you at risk of contracting food and water borne diseases like typhoid, food poisoning and diarrhea?

But are the dhaba wallahs the sole villains of the piece? To be fair to them, the neglect of food hygiene isn't intentional, but occurs mostly due to lack of awareness amongst the staff. Usually hygiene in cooking practices goes for a toss because convenience is the supreme driving factor in these small road side eateries. For instance - it is much more convenient to cook and store large quantities of food at normal temperatures, and then heat it only slightly before serving. This practice is a serious health risk, but would the uneducated dhaba wallahs understand the significance of their actions? It is highly unlikely. Ditto for other convenient practices – like unwashed hands and utensils, uncovered food, and unclean water. Also, the main customers at these highway dhabas – the truck drivers and their cleaners, don't care a penny for hygiene. They just want to have their bite and move on. In such cases, a dhaba owner doesn't have much incentive for taking on the additional hassle of monitoring food quality and hygiene standards.

If the food in highway dhabas is cooked in such unhygienic conditions, is the public opinion in India against highway dhabas? On the contrary. Not many care much for food quality, when it comes at so affordable a price. It is quite possible that a majority of people would still vouch for the highway dhabas in spite of the health risks. This was amply demonstrated when almost all sections of society unanimously spoke out against the ban on street food in Delhi. In that case too, it was a tussle between hygiene and taste buds. Rarely are the people in the capital city so united on any topic as they were in contradicting the ban. Majority support for these road side eateries ensues because of two reasons – tasty food and rock bottom prices. Both these arguments apply with equal intensity to highway dhabas. So we can safely assume that not many would want these affordable highway dhabas to suddenly disappear from the road side. Besides for many the highway dhaba experience is an integral part of a road journey – to be remembered and cherished.  

Then what is the solution? The answer lies as it nearly always does in promoting awareness - both amongst the dhaba owners and the consumer. The government should train the highway dhabas' workers to handle food, wear gloves, supply them with safe water and clean sanitation facilities, educate them about the risks posed by food and water borne diseases and penalize dhabas for non compliance with minimum hygiene standards. These measures could go a long way in promoting hygiene in highway dhabas. The consumers can also take certain precautions. Make sure your utensils are washed, get dirty looking cutlery replaced, ask for clean napkins and towels, try to stick to bottled water, request specifically for freshly cooked food, never eat from uncovered containers and pray for the best!

In the end it always boils down to personal choice. Are you one of the people who carry their own boiled drinking water and are sticklers for cleanliness? Avoid highway dhabas like the plague. But if you are like the majority of people, who find the stops at highway dhabas refreshing to the taste buds, not to mention light on the pockets, then just harden your resolve and eat on. After all, the best things in life usually come with a warning attached - be it cigarettes, liquor, burgers, colas or highway dhabas.

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— About our writer:

Computer engineer by education and energy consultant by profession, Ritika is interested in a variety of topics. Apart from writing - making cartoons, sketches, reading, music and most of all her work involving climate change keep her reasonably busy.