Even as Swiggy and Zomato have seen tremendous growth, the number of complaints of poor quality of food being delivered have shot through the roof. Consider these figures reported in a response filed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the Rajya Sabha: In FY19, there were 1053 complaints filed with the National Consumer Helpline. This financial year, FY20, this figure has crossed 1,955, an almost 100% jump as of January 2020.
The Ministry says complaints of sub-standard food being delivered by the online food delivery companies are brought to the notice of the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for appropriate action. There are cases forwards to the Commissioners of Food Safety in the respective states from where the complaints are received as well.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry, in the reply tabled in the Upper House by the concerned minister, Danve Raosaheb Dadarao, has quoted other data as well on the overall situation on complaints received about online businesses.
According to this data, in the six-month period April to September 2019, a total of 34,991 complaints were received against the top five companies. Flipkart Internet accounted for 11,028 and Amazon Seller Services 7,203. Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone were the other three. The minister’s reply claims most of these complaints were resolved by the companies as well, at least 98% of them.
As a matter of clarification, the minister has added in his reply that when it relates to the food products, it is the FSSAI and if it is to with medicines or cosmetics, the Central Drug Controller comes into the picture. These regulatory bodies have to powers to investigate and order punishment to the erring businesses.