Food Rescue: Zomato Introduces New Feature To Curtail Food Wastage; Deepinder Goyal Posts Details On X

The quick delivery and food delivery paradigm has grown significantly over the recent past, bringing about a great deal of comfort with an array of choices for customers.

Zomato's New Feature

This has also induced a monumental sense of complacency in users, who have the best food item from the choicest options around them, just a click away. As a result of this, food wastage has seen an ostensible rise, given the volume of orders cancelled.

In what is being seen as a measure to tactfully mitigate this waste of food, Zomato has now launched a new feature on its platform.

The Gurgram-based company's chief, Deepinder Goyal, took to his X account to give more details on this new feature.

Goyal started the post with a caveat and said, "We don't encourage order cancellation at Zomato because it leads to a tremendous amount of food wastage."

According to Goyal, despite their policies, food wastage continued to be a factor lurking in the system. He added, "Inspite of stringent policies, and and a no-refund policy for cancellations, more than 4 lakh perfectly good orders get cancelled on Zomato for various reasons by customers."

"The top concern for us, the restaurant industry, and even the customers who cancel these orders, is to somehow save the food from going to waste."

Introducing the new feature, Deepinder Goyal said, "Today, we are introducing a new feature (being scaled as we speak) – Food Rescue!

"Cancelled orders will now pop up for nearby customers, who can grab them at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging, and receive them in just minutes."

The cancelled order will now be passed onto other customers at a competitive price, which according to the company will reduce wastage of food.

How Does It Work?

• This said order, that has been cancelled, will appear on the screen or pop up for the food delivery app's customers within a 3 km radius of the delivery agent carrying the order.

• This option for safety reasons will only be available for a few minutes. The amount of time has not been cleared.

• The amount paid by the new customer will be shared with the original customer and with the restaurant partner.

• Easily perishable products with a short shelf life, including ice creams and other condition-sensitive food items will not be on offer at service.

It remains to be seen how well the feature works, given the difficulties in communicating required information and limitations for customers in some areas.