Sep 20, 2018
Food delivery firms start delisting restaurants without FSSAI Licence
Food aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy have started delisting restaurants that do not have a licence from the food regulator from their platforms
Food aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy have started delisting restaurants that do not have a licence from the food regulator from their platforms to comply with a directive to this effect from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) given earlier in July.
Zomato has already delisted hundreds of restaurants from its food ordering platform for not being compliant with FSSAI norms on food safety and hygiene, its CEO Deepinder Goyal has said. “As and when these restaurants provide us their FSSAI licenses, we will enable them for online ordering services,” he said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Swiggy meanwhile began the delisting process for restaurants since the FSSAI notice was first sent in July.
"We have set up an FSSAI Assist Program to help all non-compliant restaurants procure their licenses within the specified timeframe," said a spokesperson at Swiggy.
While Zomato did not specify the number of restaurants, the exercise is being carried out across all 34 cities where the firm has presence. Zomato lists over 50,000 restaurants on its food delivery platform and over 1.4 million restaurants across the 24 countries it is present in. Swiggy has over 40,000 restaurants listed on the platform in India.
For those restaurants which are among the top rated ones on the platform and/or offer high repeat order volumes to the platform, but don’t possess the adequate licence, Zomato has offered an extension until September-end to comply with regulations.
“Most of our high order volume restaurant partners currently have or have applied for their FSSAI licences. We are certain this move will not have an impact on our order volumes,” said Mohit Gupta, CEO, food delivery business at Zomato. Gupta added that if restaurants failed to meet the timeline, they will face the risk of being delisted even while maintaining that Zomato will relist such errant restaurants as and when they provide the mandated licence.
The move follows FSSAI’s directive to leading food service providers such as Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and UberEats to delist non-FSSAI licensed food businesses from their platforms, following complaints of sub-standard food being served through such platforms.
“Most of the food delivery players have given their commitment to ensure the issue is tackled and have sought time until the end of September to ensure compliance,” said Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO at FSSAI. “They expect that about 90-95% of restaurants on their platform will turn compliant by then,” he told ET.
The earlier deadline the regulator had fixed for complying with its directive was July 31.
As of now, 30-40% of restaurants on food delivery platforms have failed to comply with FSSAI’s hygiene requirements and face the risk of being delisted, Agarwal said.
FSSAI has employed third party audit firms to undertake a check on restaurants listed across all such platforms, and has told delivery aggregators to start displaying hygiene ratings going forward.
“We are soon going to list the audit agencies handling this task but the onus of the audit’s effectiveness will be on the aggregators,” Agarwal said.
Swiggy has also been working with Equinox Labs, a food-audit firm accredited by FSSAI/ NABL on food hygiene audits that are conducted at restaurants to ensure the food is being prepared in accordance with the hygiene standards.
FSSAI is also looking into issues of hygiene with regard to usage of cooking oil by restaurants – an issue where it expects delivery aggregators to contribute significantly with regard to enabling disposal mechanisms.
India: Necessity Of Licensed Food Outlets
Being a country of food loving people, India is a market of multiple food joints delighting numerous taste-buds. There has been a rapid and remarkable increase in the restaurant business of the nation which cater to the needs of around 1.2 billion citizens. Ranging between the wide market of the country, eateries are visible throughout the country varying from small hawkers on the roads to the most expensive and lavish restaurants symbolizing the class and status of the segment of the population visiting them.
Legal Requirements
The commercialization of food products in India is administered by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (hereinafter referred as "FSSAI") according to the guidelines issued under the Food Safety Standards Authority of India Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act").
Registration and Licensing prerequisite
In order to ensure the safety of the consumers, the Government emphasizes on the need of obtaining requisite licenses and adhere by the standards prescribed. The Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Business) Regulations, 2011, (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") lays down the procedure for registration and licensing of food business in India. Some of the provisions of the Regulations state the following:
- For the purpose of registration of the business, the applicant is required to submit application with the Registering Authority with payment of prescribed fees and a self-attested declaration of adherence assuring that the applicant shall follow the basic hygiene and safety requirements;
- No person shall commence any food business unless he possesses a valid license for commencing or carrying on food business granted by the Central Licensing Authority. For the said purpose, the applicant is required to submit documents such as Blueprint/layout plan of the unit, details of directors/ partners/ proprietor & equipment, proof of possession of premises, Food Safety Management System plan, documents indicating constitution of the food unit (like partnership deed, articles of association), NOCs from Municipality or local body and from State Pollution Control Board, source of raw material, etc.
The grant of the aforesaid registration and license certifies that the food business operators carry out their activities in a clean, adequately lighted & ventilated, hygienic environment, having proper storage facilities and sanitation facilities thus safeguarding the interests of the consumers.
Food delivery entities delist non-licensed food joints
Food delivery entities such as Zomato and Swiggy have adopted a pragmatic approach of working towards the safety of its customers. These corporates have delisted the restaurants lacking the license issued by FSSAI in furtherance of the FSSAI directive issued on July 20, 2018 requiring the online food operators for delisting such joints by July 31, 2018.1
With the revolution in the food services industry, there has been a substantial rise in the number organized food outlets. Since food has a major contribution in the growth of the Indian economy, it is important that the businesspersons involved therein follow the legal compliances to deliver highest quality service.
Workshops stress on hygiene of food handlers at Pb varsity
Chandigarh: The University Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism (UIHMT) organised a training programme workshop for those working at the Student Centre on Wednesday as a large number of students eat food there and personal hygiene of those handling the food was important.
The chef of the UIHMT of Panjab University, Jaswinder, apprised the workers on how to handle the food safely, how to preserve it and also how they can maintain personal hygiene. The workshop was conducted specifically for the workers of student centre. More than 80 of them working at the Student Centre as well of various hostels participated in this workshop. After the workshop, hygiene kits were distributed among the workers, which included bathing soap, paste, toothbrush, hand towel, shampoo, oil, comb, etc. The workshop was followed by a nukkad natak performed by Parampara Arts to create awareness about safe disposal of waste.
As part of ‘Swachhata Hi Sewa’ campaign, the Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, Chandigarh, in collaboration with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited organized a health and hygiene workshop for food handlers of Panjab University. Prof Emanual Nahar, Dean Student Welfare was the chief guest at the workshop. He assured that all efforts would be made by his office to ensure the welfare of workers as well as food safety on PU campus.
Dr Namita Gupta, chairperson, Centre for Human Rights and Duties stated that the job of the cooks and workers was very important as well as noble, so they must try their level best to serve hygienic food to the students.
In a recent visit to the mess of the hostels, a UIHMT team had made an observation in a report drafted by them that there was a dire need to revamp the kitchens, which were more than decade old. In the report it was stated that all kitchens have a permanent structure, which is not at all hygienic. In the report a suggestion was mooted that the authorities have to revamp the kitchen, which should be of steel and was removable so that after every fortnight the staff could clean the mess properly, which was not possible in the existing structure.
Another issue which the team observed in the mess of the hostels was that the storage of the raw material was as per the norms but the mess staff was untrained for food understanding, handling and cooking techniques. The department is going to propose a training programme for five days in which the mess staff will be trained about the food and hygiene in the mess. In fact, a check list will be prepared for all hostels, which the staff will have to follow while working in the kitchen and preparing food.
In a survey which was conducted in 2016 in all hostels of the campus as per the findings of the feedback forms, a large number of students had complained about the bad quality of food served in the mess of the campus.
Fill vacancies in food safety department: HC
HC takes suo-moto cognizance of reports about plight of 2014 flood victims
SRINAGAR: The J&K High Court Wednesday directed the state that the proposal for amendment to recruitment rules be cleared and pending vacancies in Food Safety Department be filled as soon as possible.
The court said if the directions are not implemented then Commissioner, Secretary ARI & Trainings and Commissioner, Food Safety, be present in the court on next date of hearing.
The direction was passed after amicus curie Bashir Ahmed Bashir informed the court that despite availability of mobile food testing laboratories no sample is taken randomly as these mobile labs lack technicians.
He informed that the Food Safety department lacks expert staff because of which public is made to consume adulterated food stuff.
Hearing the PIL on food adulteration, the division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur remarked that good quality of food is the basic right of people and authorities cannot take the issue lightly.
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