Complaints against food apps up 100%

Fury Over Poor Quality Of Food

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:15.03,2020

Complaints over food quality and hygiene standards against online food ordering and delivery platforms look set to double during the current financial year with 1,955 grievances lodged between April 2019 and January 2020, as against 1,053 during the 2018-19 fiscal year.

The consumer affairs ministry recently gave the details of complaints in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The complaints were registered through the National Consumer Helpline set up by the government.

The ministry said online food ordering and delivery services have increased during the last three years. “Some instances of sale of sub-standard food being delivered through online food delivery service platforms have come to notice of FSSAI. Whenever any [such] instance is received, the same is taken up with the commissioner of food safety of states/UTs. The Food Safety and Standards Act and Rules & Regulations framed thereunder have provisions to ensure food quality and hygiene,” the ministry said.

The details accessed from NCH show that one-fourth of the 5.65 lakh complaints registered till January this year were related to e-commerce. In response to another question in the RS in December last year, the consumer affairs ministry had said that the top five companies against whom the maximum complaints were registered between April and September 2019 included two major ecommerce firms — Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd and Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd. The other three companies were from the telecom sector — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

NCH data also show that as high as 18% of the complaints against e-commerce firms between April 2019 and January 2020 were related to no refund of paid amount and in 12% cases of wrong goods being delivered. Non-delivery or delay in delivery of products comprised nearly 21% of the complaints.

According to an official report, the maximum complaints were received from UP (14%), followed by Maharashtra (13%) and Delhi (11%).