Govt may increase scrutiny on quick commerce firms following hygiene, food safety issues

Time of India

a day ago

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The Centre may call for increased surveillance on rapid delivery outfits amid growing hygiene issues flagged by food and health watchdogs at dark stores run by quick commerce platforms.Senior officials in the consumer affairs ministry said the central government has taken cognisance of recent food safety complaints amid poor sanitary conditions at dark stores or warehouses from where such deliveries are made.The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is expected to take the lead on this campaign. The agency, which comes under the aegis of the health ministry, is planning to step up unscheduled checks at quick commerce dark stores and other storage facilities across the country, officials said.The FSSAI is charged with establishing the standards for manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food items.'It's a work in progress… the government has been receiving several complaints from consumers as well as retailers and vendors,' a senior government official said. 'It's a serious issue that multiple departments will need to work together towards to address.'This follows raids by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Mumbai and Pune at warehouses of quick commerce platforms Zepto and Blinkit that threw up multiple hygiene issues and violations of food safety norms. It led to the suspension of the dark store operators' licences. ET reported on June 7 that nearly a dozen packaged food companies have written to quick commerce platforms in the last two-three months, raising immediate concerns about lapses in storage and handling at dark stores, citing specific violations.Multiple food safety issues at these platforms had cropped up last year as well after the Telangana food safety commissioner conducted raids at Blinkit warehouses in the state and found violations. The FSSAI had last year asked state authorities to step up scrutiny of quick commerce dark stores after concerns over hygiene and the supply of products close to expiry. In the light of this, the FSSAI had also changed regulations, stipulating that ecommerce and quick commerce marketplaces have to ensure a minimum shelf life of 30% or at least 45 days before products expire at the time of delivery.Quick commerce executives said dark stores operate as per existing laws.'There's a standard training that everyone working at our dark stores undergoes to ensure how certain items are to be dealt with,' said a senior Gurugram-based executive at a quick commerce firm. 'This includes food items that need to be handled and stored, keeping certain things in mind such as temperatures or hygiene.'Besides hygiene and food safety-related concerns, quick commerce firms had also recently come under the scanner for the use of dark patterns.On May 28, Union consumer affairs minister Pralhad Joshi held a meeting on this issue that was attended by top consumer internet firms including Swiggy Zomato and Blinkit parent Eternal, Flipkart, BigBasket, Tata 1mg, Ola and Rapido.The consumer affairs ministry has since intensified awareness campaigns about dark patterns, which refer to deceptive app design practices that mislead consumers into unintended actions. These include false urgency alerts, subscription traps, hidden costs added at checkout and stealth advertising to manipulate consumer decision making.On June 7, the ministry issued an advisory asking ecommerce platforms to conduct self-audits to identify dark patterns within three months and take action to ensure these are scrapped. The companies, based on these audit reports, will then have to provide a declaration that they weren't indulging in any dark patterns.Industry executives and brand founders told ET that the fast, yet 'unchecked' expansion of quick commerce platforms — that led to these marketplaces as well as brands scaling up quickly — could be at the heart of the matter.Brands of specific products that are more susceptible to hygiene issues, such as frozen foods and ice creams, have been working with quick commerce platforms to figure out optimal ways to store and deliver items.'Earlier, quick commerce companies delivered our products along with soaps and shampoos… but we have been working with them to understand how ice creams need to be stored and delivered in separate containers,' the founder of an ice-cream brand told ET. This year, quick commerce platforms are expected to sell around Rs 200 crore of ice-cream products each month during summer.The sector, which has attracted billions of dollars in investments, has undergone a rapid scale-up in the last year. According to a note by HSBC Global Research, quick commerce firms in India had around 1,800 dark stores at the end of FY24, which increased to more than 4,000 by the end of fiscal 2025. That's expected to reach 5,000-5,500 stores by the end of FY26. This includes the larger players such as Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart, in addition to the likes of Flipkart Minutes, BigBasket, Amazon Now and Reliance Retail.Quick commerce dark stores that have been around for at least 12 months easily clock over 1,000 orders every day. Segment leader Blinkit recorded 142 million orders on its platform in the March quarter.