Zomato, Swiggy delists 10,500 restaurants for violating food safety law

INDIA – Indian e-commerce firms, Zomato, Swiggy, among others have removed 10,500 restaurants from their list of suppliers for allegedly violating the food safety law established by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

An ET Retail report reveals that the restaurants did not have having license or registration under the food safety law, according to a revelation presented to the Parliament.

Earlier this year, FSSAI directed ten ecommerce firms including Zomato, Foodpanda, Swiggy to remove non-licenced food operators from their platforms.

The directive was triggered consumer complaints of sub-standard food being served through e-commerce platforms, an indicator of lack of compliance of food safety rules and regulations.

According to Minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the food e-commerce firms were directed to de-list the restaurants which don’t have registration under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006.

“The Food delivery aggregators informed that they have already initiated action against the defaulting partner hotels/restaurants.”

“As per information received, Zomato has delisted 2,500, Swiggy 4,000, Foodpanda1,800, UberEats 2,000 and food cloud 200 unlicensed/unregistered FBOs,” he said.

In India, the implementation and enforcement of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 Rules and Regulations made there-under, primarily rests with state and UT governments.

He added that no one shall commence or carry on any food business without license or registration under the Act.

Choubey stated further regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products are carried out by officials to check compliance of the standards and norms.

In October, the online food delivery platforms including Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda, Box8, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmingo, JusFood, LimeTray and UberEats had said they had de-listed over 5,000 restaurants for not having approval from food safety regulator FSSAI.

FSSAI had earlier directed food ordering platforms to furnish their FSSAI licence,agreement signed with Food Business Operators (FBOs) and their internal checks to ensure that their FBOs hold valid FSSAI licences.

In February, FSSAI operationalized guidelines for e-commerce FBOs.