Around 10,500 restaurants have been de-listed by online food delivery platforms between July and September 2018, Ashwin Kumar Choubey, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, informed the Parliament. The move comes after Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) directed platforms and facilitators, in July 2018, to implement the guidelines of e-Commerce Food Business Operators (FBOs) and de-list the FBOs without a license or registration under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Choubey also informed that the following companies have initiated action against defaulting hotels and restaurants: Zomato: 2,500 Swiggy: 4,400 Foodpanda: 1,800 Uber Eats: 2,000 FoodCloud: 200 MediaNama has reached out to these companies for a comment and will update the story when we hear from them. FSSAI jurisdiction, measures and action The implementation and enforcement of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, Rules and Regulations rests with State/Union Territories Governments. Commissioner of Food Safety of all States/UTs can take necessary action to bring all FBOs under the ambit of FSS Act, 2006 through licensing and registration. No food business operator shall commence or carry on any food business without license or registration under the Act. The Parliament was informed that regular surveillance, monitoring, inspection and random sampling of food products, are carried out by the officials of Food Safety Departments of the respective States/ UTs to check compliance of the norms under FSS Act, 2006. Backdrop Online food delivery platforms have rapidly expanded their services to multiple cities. Zomato claims to have 75,000…
