The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued show-cause notices to quick commerce and ecommerce platforms BigBasket and Flipkart alongside manufacturer Gemini Edibles & Fats India for allegedly promoting misleading claims, “Freedom Cooking Rice Bran Oil”.
According to the FSSAI notice, Gemini’s oil was marketed using health-benefit claims, including statements that it “reduces bad cholesterol and maintains/increases good cholesterol” and contains “10,000+ PPM Natural Oryzanol”.
Associating edible vegetable oils with heart health is not permitted under the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018.
The regulator claimed that Gemini was selling food products via its proprietary ecommerce website without holding a valid Central Licence covering ecommerce activity.
The action follows an examination of promotional material across digital media platforms and ecommerce storefronts.
Notably, the FSSAI is mulling the introduction of dedicated regulations for ecommerce and quick commerce platforms as well as cloud kitchens, its CEO recently revealed. The proposed rules would require food listings on ecommerce platforms to display manufacturing and expiry dates and batch numbers online. In this, platforms would be held accountable for misleading claims made by manufacturers.
It is also considering mandatory disclosure of cloud kitchen photographs and addresses and stricter checks on dark store storage conditions.
This adds to the intensity of the ongoing scrutiny of ecommerce and quick commerce platforms over food safety violations. A few weeks ago, the FSSAI penalised multiple platforms — Amazon, Bigbasket, Flipkart, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto — for allegedly engaging in misbranding, misleading claims, and sale and display of prohibited or poisonous food articles.
Earlier in the year, the regulator also issued nine notices to Instamart following consumer complaints over alleged delivery of expired, spoiled, and contaminated food products.
Besides, state-level authorities, too, have been cracking down on quick commerce platforms over food safety and hygiene violations at their dark stores.
In August, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended the licences of 14 dark stores after checking 86 such outlets in a state-wide inspection drive. Shortly before that incident, Karnataka food safety officials also sealed a major Zepto warehouse in Bengaluru’s Hoskote over multiple breaches of food safety regulations.
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