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safefoodmitra.com · 2024-06-14 19:46:18
The discovery of a human finger by a customer in aYummo brand ice-cream ordered from Zepto on Thursday adds to the growing list of safety concerns raised over food items delivered by ultra-fast delivery firms. The customer has filed a police complaint. “We are taking this incident very seriously. We have stopped manufacturing at this third-party manufacturing facility,” a spokesperson for Walko Foods, which owns Yummo, told ET. “We have isolated the said product at the facility, our warehouses, and are in the process of doing the same at the market level. Walko Foods houses other ice-cream brands like NIC and Grameen Kulfi along with running ice-cream parlours. It recently raised $20 million from Singapore-based venture capital firm Jungle Ventures. Zepto and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) did not respond to requests for comments as of print time Thursday. In recent months, food safety regulators have stepped up checks at quick commerce firms’ warehouses across multiple cities amid increasing instances of violations and customer complaints even as these firms continue to rapidly expand capacity and open new dark stores, industry executives said. On February 16, a Zepto customer had flagged that he found worms in oranges he ordered from the app. On June 6, Telangana’s Commissioner of Food Safety said multiple violations were detected at a warehouse near Hyderabad being used by Zomato-owned Blinkit. Several products were found to have expired and consequently seized, the person said on an X post. Besides that, cosmetic products were stored with food items, the post added. An executive at a quick commerce firm said there are “bound to be some misses” at the current pace and scale of growth of the industry. “Quick commerce firms are juggling many balls as they are figuring out things like managing newer SKUs and sourcing them, along with making sure that products are of adequate quality and are replaced before they go bad,” the executive said on condition of anonymity. Quick commerce firms are rapidly updating their warehouse and dark store layouts as they have added product categories including beauty and personal care, consumer electronics, home decor, apparel, sports goods, and electronic appliances over the past few months. “It’s a very high-octane task as new changes have to be implemented across an ever-increasing number of dark stores and warehouses,” the executive said. For instance, market leader Blinkit operated 526 dark stores across India as of March 31, and plans to expand this number to 1,000 by the end of this fiscal. Besides Zepto and Blinkit, Prosus-backed Swiggy’s Instamart and Tata Digitalbacked Big Basket’s BB Now operate in the segment. While Zomato is setto inject about Rs 300 crore into Blinkit, taking its total investments in Blinkit to Rs 2,300 crore, Zepto is on track to raise $300-350 million at about $2.5-3 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Swiggy is going for a $1.25-billion IPO and has filed its draftIPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) through the confidential filing route.

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