Podcast | Digging Deeper: Swiggy to Zomato - Food delivery apps under greater scrutiny

Last year, as online food ordering application Zomato turned 10, it proclaimed its desire to be a 'farm-to-mouth' food company. It also acquired TongueStun, a startup in the corporate catering space for a speculated sum of $18 million, as also a drone delivery startup called TechEagle Innovations with a hope to start delivery by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at some point, and even seemed poised to launch its own digital wallet.

Till a live video brought back into focus the human factor that often gets ignored amid spreadsheets and big numbers.

The video that set social media aflame showed a Zomato delivery boy opening up a food pack, eating some of its contents and then closing the food pack again before delivering it to a customer who did not know any better. In addition to the many horrified voices in Twitter also began a debate about privilege, ethics, and social pecking order.

Zomato issued a statement saying that the person in question was removed from service. The company underscored its commitment to stop the possibility of food tampering with tamper-proof tapes, and said it would educate its delivery fleet of over 150,000 partners to highlight such deviations. Zomato, the largest food delivery platform in the country, also conceded that it had grown immensely over the last year on the back of its large and tireless fleet of delivery partners.

On this episode of Digging Deeper, we are not going to just talk about this particular incident, but also discuss in depth the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) issuance of revised guidelines for e-commerce food companies. As reported by multiple news outlets, the revised guidelines are meant to re-operationalise licensing and registration of e-commerce food companies and increase scrutiny of their operations.

We however began the big story with an anecdote about the Zomato boy because at the heart of all businesses, especially a food delivery business, are people who can make or break it – people who trust that they will be served; and the people who serve.

It is this last element that is often overlooked both by the consumers and the companies. A look at the food delivery app ecosystem and the new guidelines is our topic of discussion on Digging Deeper with Moneycontrol.