FSSAI asks food delivery platforms to de-list non-licensed eateries

Move comes after receiving complaints about supply of sub-standard food

NEW DELHI, JULY 20

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed leading food aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy and UberEats to de-list all restaurants and eateries that do not have an FSSAI licence or registration.

It has also asked them to submit a report on the action taken to delist such eateries or food vendors listed on their platforms by July 31.

This move comes after the food safety regulator received a series of complaints about sub-standard food being supplied by restaurants and vendors listed on these delivery platforms.

10 delivery platforms

The regulator has ordered 10 such online food delivery firms to “debar” non-licensed or unregistered restaurants or eateries from their platforms immediately and to ensure compliance with the food safety rules and regulations. These firms are Zomato, Swiggy, and UberEats, Foodpanda, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmingo, JusFood, Box8 and LimeTray.

This is also significant as the food safety authority had operationalised guidelines for e-commerce food service platforms in February. Under these guidelines, it is mandatory for them to display the FSSAI licence number of the restaurants and eateries listed on their platform. In addition, they also need to have an agreement with these listed eateries regarding compliance with the FSS Act and Rules.

“It is time the online food platforms work harder to ensure compliance with this new legal framework,” FSSAI said in a statement on Friday.

FSSAI, however, noted with “serious concern” that the compliance to these guidelines was “patchy” and there were complaints of restaurants and hotels without FSSAI licence being listed and allowed to sell food products on e-commerce food service platforms. There were also several complaints of sub-standard food being delivered to consumers through online market aggregators, FSSAI release added.

Besides asking them to submit an action taken report, FSSAI also asked food aggregators to furnish details of the restaurants listed on their platforms, agreement signed with these eateries and mechanisms they have adopted to internally check if these restaurants have valid FSSAI licences.