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One in seven food delivery businesses in England are ‘dark kitchens’, study shows
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Honestly McDonald's is one of the worst foods you can eat and there are few places in the UK you can't order it, so as far as making the food options worse for kids.. eh I don't see it either.
Some of the arguments are good in the article, e.g. the places where there are multiple dark kitchens sharing the same place and equipment, ensuring allergy requirements are followed for each seems hard.
That being said there is actually an issue with them which is not really mentioned (and it's as much an issue with the delivery apps). They can be listed as available without a food safety certification. It shows in most of the apps, but it's only if you actually look for it really. It makes it so easy to just create a new digital storefront and sell crap. Maybe your reviews bomb in 3-4 weeks enough that people stop ordering, but hey just make a new one from the same place and you're back in business.
I've found these places can be rather annoying in smaller towns (I live in one now), but not really a big deal in cities cuz there are so many options there. There are about 4 "different" burger places here on the apps that are the same place (same items on the menu but different names, same pictures even, same address listed, very similar prices) and it's inedible - there's a separate group of 3-4 for Mexican food, same situation. They did pretty much what I described above, one showed up, it was shit, lasted a few months and it's now at 3 stars or similar then another "new" one showed up and followed the same path and so on. It's too easy to sign up as a "restaurant".
It also makes it kind of an exercise to order from a new place and have to investigate if it's gonna be just the same garbage or if it's a genuine new place.
I think the solution would be forcing the apps the confirm a food certification with a business name matching it before allowing them to sell food. It'd help with the renaming, and also with the food safety concerns.