Zomato, a popular food delivery company, has introduced a new feature called “food rescue” to help reduce food waste caused by cancelled orders. Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, explained that every day, over 400,000 perfectly good food orders are cancelled by customers for different reasons. These orders are wasted, which is a big concern for both Zomato and the restaurants.
With the new “food rescue” feature, customers living near restaurants will be able to buy cancelled orders at very low prices. The food will be sold in its original packaging, untouched, and delivered quickly to these customers. Goyal mentioned this in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying that the goal is to prevent good food from being wasted while offering affordable options to nearby customers.
This initiative is part of Zomato’s effort to reduce food waste. Goyal emphasised that the company is trying to save food from being thrown away, even though customers cancel orders for many different reasons. He also mentioned that Zomato is planning to expand this feature to more cities in the future.
However, Zomato is currently facing some scrutiny from the Competition Commission of India (CCI). The CCI is investigating Zomato and other food delivery platforms for unfair business practices. The investigation was based on a complaint from the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), which accused Zomato of giving special treatment to certain restaurant partners. This includes things like controlling how food is delivered and changing the search rankings of restaurants. The CCI also raised concerns about Zomato’s contracts, which do not allow restaurants to offer lower prices or better discounts on their own or through other delivery platforms.
In 2022, the CCI had already noted that Zomato’s practices might create unfair competition, especially between smaller restaurants and larger ones that Zomato might favour. This has led to further investigations to understand the impact on the overall market.
In summary, Zomato’s new “food rescue” feature aims to reduce food waste and offer discounted meals to customers, but the company is also under investigation for its business practices.
