Food delivery giant Zomato has stirred controversy with its recent announcement of a 'pure veg fleet' and 'pure veg mode' aimed at addressing concerns of vegetarian customers regarding food handling practices. The move, intended to reassure customers about the handling of vegetarian food and prevent mix-ups with non-veg items, has received a mix of responses from the public.
While some customers appreciate the initiative for addressing their concerns about food handling, others view it as discriminatory. Amid this, a "sarcastic ad" mocking Zomato's initiative went viral on social media.
Nilesh Trivedi, the Founder of Snow Mountain AI, shared a satirical advertisement featuring a delivery person delivering an order to a customer's doorstep, while a group of men with sticks looks on. The ad, titled 'eviction-safe food delivery,' indirectly references Zomato's recent initiative without explicitly mentioning the platform's name.
"In Indian neighbourhoods, your dietary preferences are best kept private. Our delivery fleet doesn't leak your private habits to the world. You also save some money as we don't have to pay for the life insurance of our delivery staff against possible mob lynchings," the viral ad shared by Nilesh Trivedi read.
Following the ad's viral circulation, Swiggy issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter), clarifying that the ad is fake and not affiliated with Swiggy in any way. The statement urged the public not to circulate or attribute the ad to Swiggy.
“We came across a fake ad this morning regarding a recent controversy. If it isn't already obvious, this is NOT an ad by Swiggy. It was neither created by us nor anybody affiliated with Swiggy. Kindly refrain from circulating or attributing it to Swiggy. Thank you,” a statement issued by Swiggy read.
Yesterday, Zomato CEO Goyal announced the company's plan to launch the "pure veg" service following customer feedback. He mentioned that Zomato would collaborate with restaurants offering solely vegetarian dishes, and the delivery personnel involved in this service would exclusively handle vegetarian orders, avoiding any non-vegetarian items.
"India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedback we've gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled," he had said.
However, Zomato CEO announced today that the company has opted out of implementing the green uniform policy for the Pure Veg Fleet, as initially planned. He clarified that customers choosing the 'pure veg' option will be able to identify that their orders are being delivered by the 'veg only' fleet through the mobile app.
"While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders - both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will wear the colour red," Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal tweeted this morning.
"This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days... our rider's physical safety is of paramount importance to us," he added.
"We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us," he further added.