Zomato Executive Eats Orders On The Way, Video Goes Viral

When Zomato had been advertising 50% off on its food orders, this isn’t what it would’ve had in mind.

A video of a Zomato delivery executive opening delivery orders and eating them, before packing them once again has gone viral on social media. The video, which was reportedly shot in Madurai, shows a delivery executive seated on his bike and eating out of a container. Once he’s taken a few bites, he packs the box and puts it back in his Zomato bag. He then fishes another container from within his bag, takes a few bits, seals it, and puts it back in his bag.

The video was posted yesterday by Twitter user Amit Meena, and has since been shared hundreds of times. Zomato, for its part, has verified the authenticity of the video and acknowledges that the person shot was its own delivery executive. “We have found that the video was shot in Madurai; the person in the video is a delivery partner in our fleet,” the company said. “We have spoken to him at length — and while we understand this is a human error in judgement, (we have) taken him off the platform.”

Zomato says it has also put in place processes which will prevent its delivery executives from nibbling at orders as they are being delivered. “In our commitment towards mitigating any possibility of tampering with food, Zomato will soon introduce tamper-proof tapes, and other precautionary measures to ensure we safeguard against any chances of tampering with food. Zomato has a zero-tolerance policy in this regard,” it added. 

Zomato would do well to proactively make sure that such incidents aren’t repeated. The visuals for the viral video seem pretty damaging for Zomato — nobody wants to see delivery executives themselves partake in the food they’re supposed to be delivering. This also sow in seeds of doubt when customers receive future orders — each time the serving is a little lesser than expected, customers might end up thinking that the delivery executive has had a share. Zomato, as it tells us in its offers, might be delivering tasty food, but it needs to make sure its delivery fleet keeps its hands off it.