“Go To The Store”: Food Body Chief Advises Buying Food From Local Market Vendors Instead Of Online Platforms

Online food and grocery delivery platforms are widely used by people living in cities to purchase daily essentials. However, many consumers also complain of receiving expired or poor-quality products. Since products cannot be physically checked before being purchased online, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) Chief Rajit Punhani advises that it is “always better to order food items from the store, from your local market vendor.”

“Go to the store and buy it; it is always better because then it’s the same product you can buy. While here you’ll have a photograph and the e-commerce will pick it up from the dark store,” Punhani told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

However, the FSSAI chief added that the authority has “made it very clear” to e-commerce platforms that they are responsible for what they sell. “We’re telling the e-commerce platforms that you have to take responsibility. You cannot say that we are just collecting the items,” he said.

Punhani noted that all product information should be clearly available on e-commerce platforms. “You have to see that as a person goes to the store and picks up items from there, whatever he can see there should be available to him when he sees it online. And then he should be able to get the same, similar product,” he added.

Dark Stores And Cloud Kitchens

The Food Authority chief shared that they have issued many notices to e-commerce companies and have also inspected dark stores.

“State governments have, because most of the dark stores are licensed with the state government, so the state governments have inspected; they have taken action also, they have closed down some, and there have been a lot of improvements in the dark stores also,” he shared, adding, “Cloud kitchens are another aspect that we are inspecting.”

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Punhani shared that the Food Safety Connect app allows consumers to lodge complaints about “expired products and products not of the same quality as you get in the store.”

However, stricter norms are ensuring that protocols are followed properly. The FSSAI chief added, “But we are seeing improvement, and we are seeing response from the e-commerce platforms, and we have made it very clear to them that they are responsible.”