Zomato's Deepinder Goyal responds to food safety concerns over items with future packing date: 'Not usual'

“This is not usual, and was due to a manual typing error on the vendor’s side. Still, the concerned vendor has been delisted from our database,” Goyal said on X.

During an inspection at Zomato’s Hyperpure warehouse on October 29, food safety officials in Telangana found 18kg of button mushrooms with a packing date of October 30.

The officials also observed houseflies inside the premises, which were open directly to the outside environment without a proper insect-proof screen. Few of the food handlers were found without haircaps and aprons, according to the state’s Commissioner of Food Safety.

Goyal, however, wasn’t impressed by the amount of media coverage the incident drew, highlighting that the Hyperpure warehouse achieved an A+ rating, the highest benchmark in their ranking, during the recent inspection.

“I am not sure why just these small number of mushroom packets worth Rs 7,200 (out of the crores of inventory in the warehouse), which were never going to make it to customers, are being talked about the media, while we got an A+ rating,” the Zomato CEO said.

“Maybe some people benefit from the virality which they get at the expense of pulling down the Zomato brand. And maybe we all love to believe the narrative that “all big business is bad business”,” he added.

Goyal asserted that Zomato is committed to “upholding industry food safety standards” and is focused on “not compromising on product quality at any stage of the supply chain.”

Hyperpure, Zomato’s end-to-end supply chain solution for hotels, restaurants, and caterers, provides food businesses with fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, gourmet products, packaging, and kitchen equipment.

In June, the task force inspected a Blinkit warehouse (Zomato’s quick commerce platform) in Medchal Malkajgiri District near Hyderabad, where inspectors identified issues ranging from expired items to pest concerns.

“We take safety and hygiene standards very seriously. We are closely working with our warehouse partner and the Food Safety Department to implement corrective actions from the findings,” NDTV had quoted Blinkit as saying.