Online food delivery firms have been told to ensure that the food they pick up from and delivering to their clients are duly licensed by the government. The nodal agency in these matters, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has written to all known food order and delivery companies to comply with this and give a confirmation on the same by the end of this month, July 31.
The 10 firms which have been served this notice are Swiggy, UberEats, Zomato, Box8, Fasoos, FoodCloud, Foodmongo, Foodpanda, JusFood and LimeTray
It appears the FSSAI has been receiving several complaints from customers on the poor quality of food being delivered to them by these platforms. The exact directive to these firms is to delist those restaurants and hotels who have not got or renewed their food licences from FSSAI. Despite not having valid licences, several restaurants have got themselves listed on these platforms and selling their food preparations in violation of the regulations.
FSSAI put guidelines in place, earlier this year in February, for e-Commerce Food Business Operators (FBOs), making it mandatory for the FBOs to display their licence numbers. Under the guidelines, the food delivery companies have to enter into written agreements with the FBOs in line with the Food Safety and Standards Act, Rules and Regulations.
The online food order and delivery companies now need to submit to FSSAI, the complete documentation including their FSSAI licence, the copy of the agreement they have signed with the FBOs and the system they have created to do internal checks on the compliance issues.
Such strict regulations will be seen as a welcome move by the customers availing these services from their homes.