Online Food Delivery Apps in Guwahati gets ultimatum, asked to produce valid Food Licences

Guwahati: The Food Safety Department officers on Saturday launched an operation drive on two popular online food delivery apps UBER Eats and Zomato and found that the food-based apps were running their online food business without a valid food license in the Guwahati city.

Therefore, the Food Safety Department officers under the supervision of Senior Food Safety officer Tarun Das today directed the food delivery apps to produce their valid licence within April 8, 2019 under section B1 (1) of Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 and Rule 2.2.2 (1) of Food Safety and Standards (Licensing + Registration of Food Business) Regulation Act.

It is to be noted that under these act no person shall commence or carry on any food business unless the party possesses a valid food license.

Speaking to the media, Senior Food Safety officer Tarun Das said, “Both UBER Eats and Zomato couldn’t produce their GMC trade licenses during our operation, henceforth, we have asked them to produce their valid documents by April 8, 2019. It has come to light that both the two online food delivery apps were running their food business without a valid license. Also, during our operation, we came to know another online food delivery app Food Panda has not been operating in the city since past one month.”

Officer Das also mentioned that online Food based app Zomato have been operating their business from a room at Hotel Barak Regency near Rajdhani Masjid in Guwahati and UBER Eats from Joyanagar Tripura road near Six Mile.

Earlier, as per a media report, online food based app Swiggy was also asked to produce their valid food license which they failed to produce during an inspection by the Food Safety Department officials.

Meanwhile, Senior Food Safety officer Tarun Das had informed the media that online food based app Swiggy has submitted a mail to the Department which will be thoroughly verified, however, a case will be registered against the all the online-based food apps in connection to the matter.

“If they fail to produce their valid documents and valid licenses within the stipulated time period then the department will be bound to shut down their online businesses in the city,” added officer Das.