As a one-time food critic, I’ve eaten from and reviewed some of the country’s best – and worst – takeaways.

Fast food joints can often all get lumped together as unimaginative, greasy and just generally unhealthy. But I think this is to over simplify the extent of outlets that offer takeaway food. Some serve restaurant-quality dishes and can actually be quite nutritious (if you have a salad and ask the server to refrain from adding lashings of fatty dressing).

Others though really are terrible, with the food being served up virtually inedible if you haven’t had five pints of beer. Beef burgers that taste like they’ve never seen a cow before and curries that have a nasty layer of fat floating on the surface. I’ve tasted some real shockers.

“Was the meal value for money? Not really, given that most of it went in the bin,” I once remember writing.

I hope that my reviews were of use for the readers of the regional newspaper that I wrote anonymously for. I hope I steered people to some real gems, while warning them of the places to avoid at all costs.

But given that newspapers are rarely kept for more than a couple of days, the chances are that unless readers kept a list of the best outlets to visit in the region on their noticeboards, some shocking mistakes were made.

In the five years or so since I wrote my last newspaper takeaway review sites such as Tripadvisor have really come of age. When used properly, I am a massive fan of these portals because wherever you are in the country you can quickly find a decent place to grab something (just as you can also find the best places to stay).

While Tripadvisor has many more restaurants listed, it does also include some takeaways. Perhaps more useful if you are looking for the latter are sites and apps such as Just Eat and Hungry Horse. They allow you to order online and have the food delivered straight to your door.

Customers are asked to review takeaways on the basis of quality of food, speed and value for money. These are factors that most people would look for if they were getting meals delivered to their door, so I think the sites are extremely useful. And I’ve got friends that only use these sites if they are looking for a takeaway because they know there is a quality check in place.

But there seems to have been a bit of a backlash in recent months from takeaway owners who have claimed they have been unfairly kicked off the likes of Just Eat and Hungry Horse. “Food-ordering websites are cannibalising our business, say takeaways,” shouts a headline in The Independent today.

The Independent’s story includes a comment from Just Eat saying it removes underperforming takeaways from its listings “if they continuously fail to deliver on customer expectations”. If consumers are being let down, surely that’s a good thing?

There are also complaints from businesses that the fees charges by the sites are too high (they typically charge a fee to join and then the sites apparently charge approximately 20% commission).

But why shouldn’t businesses that are going to make money out of new customers be charged a fee for the referral? The likes of Just Eat have invested considerable sums in developing and marketing their site.

One organisation that represents takeaways is therefore encouraging its members to launch their own online ordering systems.

I am passionate about seeing small businesses (many takeaways are owner-operated) survive and thrive. But they should never be allowed to boost their profits at the expense of ripping off customers.

Businesses deserve to be scrutinised, so for some (particularly the ones churning out a poor quality product) the rise of the Internet has been uncomfortable. There is now nowhere to hide.

I have always thought that the small businesses that serve their customers well by delivering quality products that customers wanted can survive, even during the added layer of scrutiny that the digital age brings.

No business is forced to use online booking platforms (a category that includes the likes of Lastminute.com and Uber). And firms choosing to use them or deciding to invest in their own online ordering portal is not a binary choice that needs to be made.

Hotels don’t have to list themselves on Lastminute.com, taxi drivers don’t have to join Uber and takeaways aren’t forced to list on Just Eat. But if they do, they should be prepared to pay a fee for having access to a wider pool of customers – and be scrutinised over the service they offer.

Platforms do of course have a responsibility to ensure that businesses that are unfairly criticised by “customers” (for example if competitors post malicious comments) receive justice.

But takeaways need to accept that if an organisation is willing to help market and bring new customers to their outlets – which is what Just Eat and Hungry Horse do – they need to pay for that service. And they have to appreciate that if they don’t deliver a first-class service consumers will be there to scrutinise them.