Recently, footage of a Japanese student licking a soy sauce bottle and a cup in a Sushiro outlet went viral.
The boy’s appalling behaviour sparked outrage and even caused the restaurant’s parent company to suffer a drastic drop in stock prices.
Following the incident, Sushiro introduced changes to its operating policy, including adding limitations to the sushi conveyor belts at all outlets in Japan.
According to Japanese media outlet SoraNews24, Sushiro posted a notice regarding operating policy changes on Friday (3 Feb).
There are three major changes.
Firstly, Sushiro will limit the use of its famous sushi conveyor belts. Customers will no longer be able to grab ready-made dishes that travel around the restaurant.
Source: Google Maps
Instead, they will now have to order their sushi from a touchscreen panel at their table.
The ordered plate will be sent directly to their table, stopping so that they can retrieve the dish.
As a result, the amount of time that plates are on the conveyor belt is reduced. Besides that, the sushi plates will move faster on the express lane.
These changes decrease the likelihood of pranksters tampering with someone else’s food, Sushiro added.
Apart from that, the second policy change involves utensils.
Typically, there are boxes of utensils and condiments such as chopsticks, soy sauce plates, and tea cups on every table.
Source: Google Maps
While these boxes will remain there, customers who feel uncomfortable using the utensils can ask for a new set from staff members at any time.
Additionally, Sushiro will install clear acrylic partitions between the tables and conveyor belts.
This will prevent both accidental and intentional food contamination while the dishes travel to the customer, they explained.
“These are just some of the things we can do now to the best of our ability,” said the company as reported by The Japan Times. “We sincerely ask for your understanding.”
According to Sushiro’s announcement, these changes are only temporary measures.
Even before the licking incident, other sushi restaurants were trying to stay away from using conveyor belts.
This is because, after some time, unwanted sushi has to be thrown out, which results in higher food wastage.
Furthermore, customers prefer fresh, made-to-order sushi. This change could become permanent in all stores, leading to other restaurants following suit.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps & Google Maps.
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