Swiggy, Zomato, other apps junk 10,500 ‘unsafe’ eateries

NEW DELHI: Leading e-commerce food delivery platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats and Food Panda have delisted 10,500 restaurants as they did not have the food safety regulator’s approval.

The move comes after a strict directive was issued in July this year by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) asking ecommerce sites to remove all unlicensed and non-registered restaurants from their listings by September 30.

In a latest review of its order, FSSAI found that Zomato has delisted 2,500, Swiggy 4,000, Foodpanda 1,800, UberEats 2,000 partner hotels. Around 200 restaurants on other platforms too have been axed.


“These food aggregators have been directed to share the list of delisted Hotels/ Restaurants so that action can be initiated against the defaulters,” FSSAI said. It added, once the list is in place, it can be shared with state enforcement machinery for the action against non-compliant food business operators.

FSSAI’s order was triggered by complaints received by the regulator about substandard food being supplied by restaurants and vendors listed on these delivery platforms.

The food regulator had shared a checklist of compliance for hotels and restaurants with the e-commerce sites which they can refer for their internal food safety audits. Zomato and Swiggy have conducted internal food safety audits of some of their partner hotels and restaurants accordingly, the regulator said.

Based on the checklist, some of the food delivery aggregators have also come together for training and certification of the supervisors of hotels and restaurants.

According to a FSSAI official, the move is aimed at ensuring that all food operators, including the aggregators, are under the purview of the law. “It is also the responsibility of the aggregator to ensure that a hotel or a restaurant using its e-commerce platform is compliant to law. Further on in case of non-compliance, the liability is also of the e-commerce platform,” an official said.