Zomato launches new feature, Food Rescue, to reduce food wastage

Food delivery company Zomato has introduced a feature, called Food Rescue, allowing users to buy cancelled orders at a discounted price, in an effort to reduce food wastage.

“Cancelled orders will now pop up for nearby customers, who can grab them at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging, and receive them in just minutes,” Zomato cofounder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal wrote in a post on X on Sunday.



More than 400,000 orders are cancelled by customers on the platform per month for multiple reasons despite a no-refund policy, according to Goyal.

Cancelled orders will appear for customers located within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner carrying the order.

“To ensure freshness, the option to claim will only be available for a few minutes,” Goyal said.

Items such as ice creams, shakes, smoothies and certain perishable goods will not be eligible for Food Rescue.

“Zomato will not keep any proceeds (except the required government taxes). The amount paid by the new customer will be shared with the original customer (if they made payment online), and with the restaurant partner,” Goyal said.

The company will also compensate its delivery partners for the entire trip. According to its latest shareholder letter, it had 498,000 monthly active delivery partners on average in the previous quarter.

“Restaurant partners will continue to receive compensation for the original cancelled order, plus a portion of the amount paid by the new customer if the order is claimed,” Goyal said.

The Gurgaon-based company has been experimenting with and rolling out various features over the past few months.

It recently launched Brand Packs, allowing users to purchase coupons for extra discounts on food delivery from their frequently ordered restaurants. In June, the platform introduced a feature allowing users to view the total number of orders they had placed on the app.

On April 24, ET reported that Zomato started piloting priority deliveries, enabling users to get their orders delivered faster by paying an extra fee of Rs 19-29 per order. It was also testing a ‘pay later’ feature for some users where they could place orders but make the payment any time before the food was delivered.

For the September-quarter, the company reported a 68% year-on-year jump in its operating revenue to Rs 4,799 crore, with a profit of Rs 176 crore. The food delivery segment recorded a gross order value of Rs 9,690 crore, a year-on-year increase of 21%.