Zomato receives FSSAI notice for operations in Dehradun

Gurugram-based foodtech unicorn Zomato this week received a notice from the FSSAI, asking the company to get a food safety licence for its operations in Dehradun. It is reported that the platform hasn't been registered according to The Food and Safety Standard Act 2006.

In an email response, Zomato confirmed that it had received a notice from the FSSAI for its operations in Dehradun. In a note shared by the company, a Zomato spokesperson said: “Our long-held mission is 'better food for more people' and we feel very strongly about food safety and hygiene. We welcome any move by FSSAI, which will help drive development in the ecosystem and, in this regard, have been working with them since the past year to achieve compliance for our restaurant partners. We have already applied for a licence for our operations in Dehradun as well as other cities, and will make sure we are fully compliant with the directives set by FSSAI, as we continue to expand across the country.”

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It has been reported that Zomato has been given seven days to provide the details sought by the FSSAI.

Further commenting on the notice, the spokesperson said:"Our restaurant search and discovery platform has democratised the quality audit of food being served by a restaurant with reviews of thousands of restaurants, and our supply platform, HyperPure, helps us source fresh ingredients for the restaurants. We have Food Hygiene Ratings of over 10,000 restaurants, which translate to over 80 percent of the volume for its online ordering business, live on the platform. We have on-boarded thousands of new restaurant partners over the last few months and currently list over 80,000 partners in over 170+ cities on the platform. We have the widest choice available on our platform, and we will continue to enhance it for user delight while making sure that we are upping the ante on food quality, restaurant hygiene and our overall services every single day."

Since the end of last year, Zomato has been pushing the pedal to further grow in different cities across the country. After drones, Zomato is making a shift to bicycles. The foodtech unicorn announced it had introduced electric and mechanical bicycles as part of its last-mile delivery fleet. 

Zomato claims it carries out close to a million deliveries a day. Last month, Zomato had raised $40 million in funding led by US-based private investors Glade Brook, according to the company's filings with the Registrar of Companies. This fund raise is reported to be a part of a larger $1 billion round Zomato is raising from existing investor Ant Financials and new investors. 

The startup claims to have over 22 million monthly orders, and claims to have a delivery fleet of 1.5 lakh partners after acquiring delivery startup Runnr.