Zomato Improves The Hygiene Selection; Delists 5000+ Non-compliant Restaurants

Earlier today, Zomato announced that it has delisted over 5000 restaurants found non-compliant with the standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for hygiene.

Over the last few months, Zomato along with FSSAI, has been conducting an ongoing audit of all the restaurants listed on the platform, across the 150+ cities of its presence. It has been aggressively educating restaurant partners to obtain a license, as well as meet the necessary hygiene standards. As a result, the number of compliant restaurants on the platform has increased by over 30,000 in the past 6 months. 

Announcing the move, Mohit Gupta, CEO, Food Delivery business, Zomato, said, “As a leading food delivery platform, we believe that it is our responsibility to actively work towards building a safe ecosystem for our users. We are adding ~400 restaurants to our platform every day; so it is crucial that our restaurant partners are compliant with regulations and hygiene standards. For this reason, we have been re-evaluating all the 80,000+ restaurants listed on Zomato, helping them be compliant, and delisting those that have failed to follow regulations in spite of continuous efforts. All our high order volume restaurant partners are already compliant, therefore, we are certain this move will not have an impact on our order volumes.”

Zomato is committed to creating an environment which strives to provide the best services to users, while also fueling the growth of all stakeholders in the ecosystem. Initiatives like FSO training sessions, helpline nos., and DIY compliance kits have been introduced to educate restaurant partners on the subject and help them obtain certification. It also shares a repository of best practices with restaurant partners to further sensitize them. The delisted restaurants will be allowed to operate on the platform only when they meet the required standards.

Zomato introduced Hygiene Ratings, a couple of years ago, to educate its users about the hygiene standards within restaurants. The idea was to introduce the concept of standardized kitchen hygiene to the restaurant industry in India and reward restaurant operators who care about the sanitation of their premises. Today, over 10,000 restaurants have Zomato’s Food Hygiene Rating–a figure that translates to over 80% of the volume for its online ordering business. 

As a democratic quality controller in the industry, Zomato requests its users to write constructive reviews about restaurants where quality or hygiene standards are not met. Its initiatives like HyperPure are focused on food quality and transparency, and the association with Feeding India is directed towards solving food wastage, hunger and malnutrition challenges. With biodegradable packaging and pro-environment messaging, Zomato actively engages in behaviour change. Its reward points program, Zomato Piggybank, has helped raise funds equivalent to 22 lakh meals, within six months of its launch.