Zomato CEO reacts to 'future dated' mushrooms found in Hyderabad warehouse

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal reacted to the concerns raised after "future-dated" button mushrooms were found in the company's Hyderabad warehouse of its B2B platform, Zomato Hyperpure.

In Short

• Zomato CEO addressed concerns over "future-dates" mushrooms found in a warehouse
• The mushrooms were found in a raid at Zomato Hyperpure's warehouse in Hyderabad
• The CEO said 90 mushroom packets had incorrect packaging dates due to vendor's error

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal addressed concerns about “future-dated” button mushrooms found in the company’s Hyderabad warehouse of its B2B platform, Zomato Hyperpure.

In a post on X, Goyal acknowledged that the Food Safety Task Force had indeed flagged 90 mushroom packets with an incorrect packaging date during an inspection on October 29. However, he clarified that the mislabeled product was identified and rejected by Zomato’s warehouse team due to a “manual typing error on the vendor’s side,” as he described the incident as a rare occurrence.

"Hello all - just want to clarify that the FSSAI team noted that 90 packets of button mushrooms had an incorrect packaging date - these were already identified by our warehouse team and were rejected during an inward QC," the Zomato CEO said, adding, "This is not usual, and was due to a manual typing error on the vendor’s side. Still, the concerned vendor has been delisted from our database."

Goyal further reassured customers, detailing Zomato’s quality measures at Hyperpure, the branch responsible for supplying restaurants and catering businesses with fresh ingredients.

“At Hyperpure, we have stringent inward guidelines and tech systems that helped our teams to identify this error in time,” Goyal wrote.

He added that the vendor in question has since been removed from Zomato’s database, affirming Zomato’s commitment to food safety. He also highlighted that the Hyderabad warehouse achieved an A+ rating, the highest industry benchmark, following the recent inspection.

"We are committed to upholding industry food safety standards and are focused on not compromising on product quality at any stage of the supply chain. The recent food safety inspection at our Hyderabad warehouse resulted in the Hyperpure warehouse achieving an A+ rating, the highest benchmark in their ranking," he said.

"I am not sure why just these small number of mushroom packets worth Rs 7,200 (out of the crores of inventory in the warehouse), which were never going to make it to customers, are being talked about the media, while we got an A+ rating," he said.

"Maybe some people benefit from the virality which they get at the expense of pulling down the Zomato brand. And maybe we all love to believe the narrative that 'all big business is bad business'," he added.

Take a look at his post here:

On October 29, a food safety task force carried out an inspection at the Zomato Hyperpure warehouse in Kukatpally, Hyderabad.

Hyperpure, a branch of Zomato, provides fresh produce, groceries, meats, packaging, consumables, and kitchen equipment to hotels, restaurants, and caterers.

During the inspection, officials discovered 18 kilos of button mushrooms labelled with a “future date of packing”—marked as 30 October 2024, despite the check occurring a day prior.