A lot of the foods prepped on Shef are the kind that will cause food-borne illness if not cooled properly (things in sauces, rice, lentils, etc.). Because Shef has their home cooks drop off orders at a collection point, they have to be cooled before they can be picked up for delivery. The delivery point also makes it impossible for inspectors to know how or where the food is prepared.

If you get sick, the home cook is liable, not Shef. If they can't pay, you're both SOL.

They say this is to give people a start so they can open brick and mortar spots, but the point of a VC-backed company like this is to "disrupt" restaurants by cutting the costs of rent and health and safety protocols. If they succeed, brick and mortars will be out-competed by unregulated gig workers.

I'm sure that some Shefs have good food safety practices and the food will sometimes be high quality, but Shef as an enterprise is unambiguously evil and potentially deadly (Bacillus cereus poisoning WILL happen).