A Mumbai man recently complained that he found a piece of severed human thumb in an ice cream that he ordered online through Zepto.
The complaint was filed by Brendon Ferrao (26), a doctor from Mumbai who made the discovery while having the Yummo Ice Creams.
In a video statement, Ferrao said, “After eating half of it, I felt a solid piece in my mouth. I thought it could be a nut or a chocolate piece and spat it out to check what it was.” Meanwhile, in a statement, Yummo Ice Creams stated, “We have stopped manufacturing at this third-party facility, isolated the said product at the facility and our warehouses, and are in the process of doing the same at the market level. With product quality and safety being our highest priorities, we were in the process of addressing the situation.”
What the incident highlights is the growing food safety issues with regards to quick commerce platforms. Neitizens have previously also complained about food safety issues from quick commerce platforms. One social media user recently said, “@fssaiindia should do surprise checks on dark stores of all delivery apps to see if they are stocking foods safely. Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Blinkit, and Bigbasket—all of them need to maintain basic hygiene and food safety. And not keep their freezer off like Zepto in this case.”
Another quick commerce platform that was under the radar of the Food Safety officials was Zomato’s quick commerce platform, Blinkit. The warehouse of Blinkit’s Medchal-Malkajgiri district in Telangana was raided by food safety officials, and multiple health violations were found in the raid.
Read: Zomato to Invest Rs 300 Crore in Blinkit Amid Intensifying Quick Commerce Battle: Report
This includes expired food items, an unhygienic area, and staff without a Fostac trainee. Further, the medical fitness certificates of food handlers were not available. Quick commerce platforms are expanding rapidly in India. Speaking to the Economic Times on the condition of anonymity, an executive from a quick commerce platform said, Quick commerce firms are juggling many balls as they are figuring out things like managing newer SKUs and sourcing them, along with making sure that products are of adequate quality and are replaced before they go bad.”
