‘Future-dated’ mushrooms in Zomato's Hyderabad warehouse? CEO Deepinder Goyal says it’s just a ‘typing error’

An inspection at Zomato’s Hyperpure warehouse in Hyderabad on October 29, 2024, uncovered 18 kg of button mushrooms labeled with a future packing date of October 30, 2024.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Monday clarified that the discrepancy, attributed to a manual typing error by a vendor, was promptly detected and rejected during the company’s inward quality control (QC) process before reaching consumers.

He also said that the vendor responsible has been delisted from its database to prevent future errors.

What was Hyderabad taskforce's findings?

The task force inspection report noted that the warehouse was operating with a valid state license displayed on-site, but certain hygiene issues were identified.

These included an open facility entrance without an insect-proof screen, the presence of houseflies inside the premises, and some food handlers working without hair caps and aprons. Despite these observations, medical fitness certificates for food handlers and pest control records were available.

Deepinder Goyal's response

Zomato boss said its rigorous standards at Hyperpure, which ensure thorough checks and prompt identification of discrepancies. “Our stringent inward guidelines and technological systems allowed our team to catch this error in time. We remain committed to maintaining the highest industry food safety standards,” he said.


He said that Zomato’s Hyperpure warehouse earned an A+ rating, the highest achievable benchmark. However, he expressed disappointment over the media attention on the isolated incident involving the mushrooms.

“I am not sure why just these small number of mushroom packets worth Rs 7,200 (out of the crores of inventory in the warehouse), which were never going to make it to customers, are being talked about the media, while we got an A+ rating,” he said.

"Maybe some people benefit from the virality which they get at the expense of pulling down the Zomato brand. And maybe we all love to believe the narrative that “all big business is bad business”," Goyal concluded.