Gurugram-based food delivery major Zomato has delisted over 5000 restaurants that it found non-compliant with the standards set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for hygiene.
Zomato said in a statement that it has been conducting audits of all the restaurants listed on its platform with FSSAI over the last few months across 150+ cities. This also included educating restaurants to obtain a license and 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, it claims.
The delisted restaurants will be allowed to operate on the platform only when they meet the required standards.
"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,” Mohit Gupta, CEO, Food Delivery business, Zomato said in a statement.
Zomato has also introduced initiatives such as FSO training sessions, helpline nos., and DIY compliance kits to educate restaurant partners on the subject and help them obtain certification.
A few years ago, Zomato launched Hygiene Ratings 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.