The CEO of Zomato Provides Clarification Regarding Button Mushrooms With a "Future Packing Date" Label

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Nov 6, 2024 — 2 min read

Zomato CEO Clarifies 'Future Packing Date' on Button Mushrooms

On November 4, 2024, Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal, claimed that a "manual typing error on the vendor's side" was the reason behind the discovery of 90 packets of button mushrooms branded with a "future packing date" during a food safety regulator's raid at the company's Hyperpure warehouse in Hyderabad. 90 of these button mushroom packets were found to have inaccurate packaging dates by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) team. Hyperpure is a business-to-business (B2B) vertical offered by Zomato.

Goyal said in a post on the social media site X that the company's warehouse team had already discovered these button mushrooms and had rejected them during an internal quality control (QC) process.

Typing Error on Vendor’s Side

This is not typical and was caused by a vendor-side manual typing error. However, the vendor in question has been removed from the company's database. Goyal went on to say that Hyperpure's personnel were able to spot this problem early on, thanks to the company's strict internal policies and technological processes.

Goyal said that they are dedicated to maintaining industry standards for food safety and are focused on ensuring that product quality is maintained throughout the supply chain.

"We received an A+ rating, and I'm not sure why the media is talking about these few packets of mushrooms, worth Rs 7,200 (out of the crores of inventory in the warehouse), that were never going to reach customers," the co-founder of Zomato stated.

Hazardous Conditions at Zomato Hyperpure Warehouse in Hyderabad

On October 29, the food safety officials paid a visit to the Zomato Hyperpure warehouse located in Kukatpally, Hyderabad. It was discovered that the establishment was using a state licence to operate.

The officials observed food safety concerns at the warehouse during their visit. Team reported that 18 kg of button mushrooms with a "future date of packing" were discovered. The label read 'October 30, 2024', yet the inspection was conducted on October 29.

In addition, the team observed that the warehouse was "open directly to the outside environment without a proper insect-proof screen" and that house flies were present inside. Furthermore, some of the food workers were discovered without their aprons and hair caps.

This episode follows a previous finding of expired items during an inspection at another Blinkit warehouse that is also run by Zomato. In response to the FSSAI's findings, Blinkit pledged to take corrective steps. Goyal maintains that despite recent criticism, Zomato takes safety standards seriously and says tech-driven quality checks shield customers from the labelling error. Zomato's leadership is dedicated to improving procedures to prevent future issues because food safety is still a delicate topic in India, especially during festive seasons.