Zomato Hyderabad warehouse raid uncovers 'Future Packing Date' on mushrooms

A recent raid by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) at Zomato's Hyperpure warehouse in Hyderabad uncovered 90 packets of button mushrooms labeled with a future packing date. CEO Deepinder Goyal responded on social media platform X, clarifying that the labeling issue was due to a manual error by the vendor and that the mushrooms had already been flagged and rejected during the company's quality control checks.During the raid, FSSAI officials identified the mislabeled mushrooms in Hyperpure, Zomato’s B2B vertical. Goyal explained that the error occurred on the vendor’s side and emphasized that Hyperpure’s stringent quality control processes had already caught and rejected the mushrooms before they could be distributed.

“This was an unusual incident caused by a manual typing error on the vendor’s side. The concerned vendor has been delisted from our database. Our robust inward guidelines and technology systems enabled us to detect this error promptly,” stated Goyal.

He reassured that Zomato is committed to maintaining high food safety standards and ensuring product quality at every stage of the supply chain. Goyal also expressed confusion over the media focus on the small number of mushroom packets, worth Rs 7,200, noting that these were never going to reach customers and that Hyperpure had received an A+ rating for its operations.

The Telangana Food Safety Commissioner had earlier reported the findings from the October 29 inspection at Zomato Hyperpure Private Limited in Kukatpally, Hyderabad. Besides the future-dated mushrooms, the inspection revealed several other issues, including premises open to the outside environment without proper insect-proof screening, houseflies inside the premises, and some food handlers not wearing haircaps and aprons.