The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Friday directed 10 online food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato and FoodPanda to delist non-licensed food business operators (FBOs) after several consumer complaints regarding sub-standard food being served through these e-commerce platforms came to its attention.
“Following a series of complaints related to sub-standard food being supplied by food businesses listed on e-Commerce food service platforms, FSSAI has directed 10 such platforms to debar the non-FSSAI licensed/registered food operators and ensure compliance of food safety rules and regulations,” the food regulator said in a statement released on its website.
The FSSAI order is also aimed at ensuring that FBOs listed on platforms such asBox8, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmingo, Foodpanda, JusFood, LimeTray, Swiggy, UberEats and Zomato comply with the food safety rules and regulations. It has also asked these platforms to submit a detailed report on action taken against non-licensed FBOs by July 31, 2018.
The authority has also directed these platforms to “furnish their FSSAI License, an agreement signed with FBOs and their internal checks to ensure that their FBOs hold valid FSSAI Licenses,” as per the notice.
The order comes after multiple consumer complaints of sub-standard food being delivered to consumers through online delivery platforms.
In Feburary this year, the FSSAI operationalized guidelines for e-commerce FBOs. As per the guidelines, the listed FBOs on e-commerce platforms need to display their licence numbers. It also mandated an agreement between the e-commerce platforms and FBOs to comply with the Food Safety and Standards Act, Rules and Regulations.
“However, FSSAI noted with serious concern that the compliance to these guidelines was patchy and there were complaints of restaurants/hotels without FSSAI license being listed and allowed to offer/sell food products on e-commerce food-service platforms,” the statement continued.
Stating that consumers will welcome this new move that aims to increase food safety, the regulator said that the online food platforms need to work harder to ensure compliance as soon as possible with this new legal framework.
According to a report published by RedSeer Consulting in 2018, India’s online food delivery market saw a rapid growth in the order volume coupled with higher seller satisfaction while the reduction in delivery cost improved the overall unit economics of the sector. The number of daily orders from online food delivery platforms reported 15% growth on a quarterly basis from January to September, last year. From September to December, self-deliveries grew to 56% of the total number of orders done by the food-tech sector in India, as compared to 46% in the 4th quarter of 2016.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that food tech is more and more of a logistics play, restaurant discovery is not a deep competitive advantage. There are clear trends on customer and seller satisfaction supported by the better delivery speed and compliance that vouch for superiority of the captive delivery model in Indian market,” said Anil Kumar, founder and chief executive officer, RedSeer.