Zomato may ‘temporarily disable’ online ordering from restaurants if a custom raises concern regarding the quality of food, an Economic Times report said. This policy is expected to go live on April 18th 2022. According to the report, Zomato sent an email advisory to restaurants which said, “Any complaint raised by an end customer regarding the quality of food or beverage, which can potentially cause serious harm to the customer’s health or well-being will be classified as ‘severe food quality complaint'.” Additionally, the advisory said that “Depending on the nature of the complaint, you may be temporarily disabled from online ordering with Zomato till a third-party (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) approved inspection of your premises is completed. The entire cost of such inspection will be borne by the restaurant.” Complaints regarding the serving of pre-packaged food items that have expired, the wrong type of meat, presence of hazardous foreign objects in food like animal/animal parts or sharp and inedible objects, serving non-vegetarian food instead of vegetarian, or fungus or rotten food, may lead to such punitive action. We have reached out to Zomato and a few restaurants with a few queries regarding this matter and we will update the post if we receive any response. According to the report, National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) is opposed to this proposed change in Zomato’s policy. The tussle between Zomato and restaurants In 2019, the NRAI had started a #Logout campaign claiming that it was protesting “against aggregators…
