Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats, BigBasket, Grofers Must Follow These 6 New Rules By FSSAI
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued new guidelines and rules for food, grocery delivery apps.
The online food and grocery industry is currently the fastest-growing segment in online retail. The industry will see a jump over four times in the next three years to cross a Rs 10,000 crore revenue by 2021. While businesses are still making no money now, soon food aggregators will see a huge jump in revenue.
Instant delivery options and business-to-business food services is a fast growing industry in India.
Not only metros, even people in Tier II and Tier III countries are now ordering online, be it a smartphone, or lunch or groceries. The overall food and grocery market in India will soon stand at a $400 billion valuation.
But the growing demand has made these companies to focus more on profits. The hyperlocal business model is now slowly turning into an inventory-led business to cut costs doing away with unprofitable products.
So, to increase credibility in the e-commerce food business sector and to build confidence among the consumers, FSSAI had laid out new guidelines for the food aggregators.
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New Rules For Zomato, Swiggy, BigBasket & Grofers | Guidelines For E-commerce Food Business Operators
These are new guidelines part of the directives issued by the FSSAI to re-operationalise the licensing and registration of the e-commerce food companies in India.
These are the 6 new rules for Zomato, Swiggy, BigBasket & Grofers:
Rule 1. Anytime Sampling
Food products on sale are now liable to sampling at any point of the time. FSSAI may carry out sampling at any part of the supply chain. The move comes as a wake-up call for food delivery companies to make sure that the food delivered is fresh and has no issue. If found guilty, the company may even face a ban for an interim period.
Rule 2. Indicative Images
All the companies offering food on sale should provide an indicative image of the food on the respective platforms. The images should be clear so that the consumers can recognize the product they are buying. At times, no images are available of the product on sale. Not its compulsory for companies to provide an indicative picture of the food or product.
Rule 3. Mandatory Information
The online food business companies needs to provide all the details on their platforms for consumers. This includes information mentioned in the FSS Act. The consumer should be informed in full about the details of the product, the ingredients and the important additional information.
Rule 4. Shelf Life
The food products being delivered should have at least a remaining shelf life of 30 percent from the manufacturing date or at least 45 days before the expiry at the time of delivery. Companies no more can deliver products which are just a couple of weeks away from expiry.
Rule 5. Only Fresh Food Has To Be Delivered
The new FSSAI guidelines has a new rule which states that food delivery aggregators need to deliver fresh food only. The companies are slowly transitioning themselves from a hyperlocal to inventory-led business. So the new rule will ensure that the companies should focus more on delivering fresh food than stocking up to cut costs.
Rule 6. Food Has To Be Delivered By Trained Professionals
The latest FSSAI guidelines mandate food business operators to ensure that the last-mile delivery is undertaken by trained personnel. Recently a video came out where a Zomato delivery personnel was seen eating out of food containers and then packing it back before delivery. The new guidelines will make sure that the food products are not compromised at the time of delivery.
