To reduce food wastage, Zomato has launched a new feature called "Food Rescue," which allows recently cancelled orders to be resold to nearby customers at discounted prices, according to media reports. The initiative, introduced on November 10, is expected to benefit customers, restaurants, and delivery partners alike.
As per media reports, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal noted that over 400,000 orders are cancelled each month, despite the platform's no-refund policy. “We don’t encourage order cancellation at Zomato, because it leads to a tremendous amount of food wastage,” Goyal shared on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The primary challenge, he added, is finding a way to avoid wasting perfectly good food.
The “Food Rescue” feature displays recently cancelled orders to customers within a 3-kilometer radius of the delivery partner holding the order, allowing them to purchase it in original packaging for a limited time. To maintain quality, items like ice creams and shakes are excluded, and vegetarian customers won’t be shown non-vegetarian options.
Original customers who paid online will receive a partial refund if the order is claimed, along with a payment to the restaurant partner. Zomato will not retain any of these proceeds, apart from government taxes. Restaurants and delivery partners can also benefit; restaurants receive the payment from both the initial and new orders, while delivery partners are compensated for the entire journey.
Recently, Zomato has been rolling out new features, including "Brand Packs," which provide extra discounts for frequently ordered restaurants, and an order history feature launched in June.
