Zomato employee eats customer's food, reseals pack for delivery

A screen grab from the viral video

In a shocking incident, a Zomato food delivery executive was caught on camera taking bites from what seems to be like a customer's food parcel. In the video footage, the delivery executive is seen opening the food delivery package and quickly grabbing some bites from it before repackaging it and putting it back in the bag for delivery. The viral video took one and all by surprise and led to strong reactions on social media platforms.

After the online furore, Zomato released a detailed blog post to communicate with its customers worldwide about the incident. The post stated that the company took 'food tampering' very seriously and the delivery person involved in the incident had been suspended with immediate effect.

Former model and actress Namrata Shirodkar also posted the video on her Instagram handle and criticized the popular food delivery app for its service. "It's really shocking how these reputed food delivery companies are functioning. People order food online expecting basic hygiene and this is how it is delivered?" Shirodkar wrote on Instagram while sharing the viral video with her followers.

Namrata further wrote, "I am definitely not gonna encourage my kids to order food online, I suggest even you guys don't!" she added.

Netizens took to social media platforms Twitter and Instagram to share their angry reactions. Here's how netizens reacted to the viral video of Zomato food delivery executive eating food from packed food delivery parcel:

After the video went viral, Zomato acknowledged the incident and tweeted about the same. Zomato also said that they have fired the food delivery executive from service.

In the statement issued, Zomato stated, "The person in the video happened to be a delivery partner on our fleet. We have spoken to him at length - and while we understand that this was a human error in judgement, we have taken him off our platform."

Zomato further added, "We take this very seriously and will soon introduce tamper-proof tapes, and other precautionary measures to ensure we add an extra layer of safeguard against such behaviour."

Here's the official statement by Zomato:

Last night, we came across a video of a delivery executive in a Zomato t-shirt, carrying a Zomato delivery bag, eating food out of boxed orders and replacing each one after resealing them, back into the delivery bag. The video suggests that he consumed some of the food meant for delivery to users, on his way to the drop points.

We want our users, restaurant partners and all stakeholders to know that -

1. We take these kinds of reports extremely seriously and upon thorough investigation, we've found that the video was shot in Madurai. The person in the video happened to be a delivery partner on our fleet. We have spoken to him at length - and while we understand that this was a human error in judgement, we have taken him off our platform.

2. We would like to iterate that given our multiple communication channels with users, who expect the highest standards from Zomato and highlight the smallest of deviations to us as soon as they receive their orders, this is highly unusual and a rare case.

3. Unfortunately, this also highlights a real possibility for tampering with the food on the way to delivery from a restaurant. We take this very seriously and will soon introduce tamper-proof tapes, and other precautionary measures to ensure we add an extra layer of safeguard against such behaviour. Additionally, we will educate our delivery fleet of over 1.5 lakh partners to highlight or escalate any such deviations to us, while also encouraging our users - the custodians of our platform - to highlight the smallest of anomalies to us.

4. And finally, our delivery partners are the face of our brand and the heart of our success in growing to become the largest food delivery platform in the country. Our food delivery business has grown immensely over the last year on the back of our large delivery partner fleet that works very hard to ensure that Zomato translates to a high-quality food experience. We thank them and the strong support and trust from our restaurant partners, consumers and investors.

Zomato maintains a zero tolerance policy for tampering of food. This particular incident, while unfortunate, only makes our commitment to fleet training, scheduling and process even stronger. We stand behind our extensive fleet who do the right thing across many hours of the day.

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