Delivery driver caught eating customer's dinner in elevator

A Chinese food delivery worker has been caught red-handed tucking into a customer's dinner.

Video footage of the awkward incident was captured in the lift of the customer's apartment building right before the food was dropped off.

The delivery cyclist can be seen crouching down and opening a container of food before helping himself to a few mouthfuls, reports News.com.au.

He then appears to spit in the food before closing the container back up and exiting the lift to make the delivery.

The man worked for popular Chinese online food site Meituan but has since been fired after the footage was posted online, reports The Metro.

An anonymous netizen uploaded the video, which shows the lift surveillance footage capturing the opportunistic moment.

"This incident reminds us that platform operators need to constantly be on guard when it comes to matters of food safety and delivery sanitation," said a Meituan spokesman.