Zomato, the popular food delivery platform, has introduced a new feature aimed at tackling the growing issue of food wastage caused by canceled orders.
Despite stringent policies and a no-refund rule for cancellations, the company revealed that over 400,000 orders are canceled on the platform every day.
These cancellations result in a substantial amount of perfectly good food being thrown away, a practice that Zomato and its partners have sought to reduce.
In response, Zomato is rolling out a new feature called Food Rescue.
This feature allows nearby customers to purchase canceled orders at a heavily discounted price, preventing food from going to waste.
The canceled orders will be available for purchase within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner carrying the food.
To ensure the freshness of the food, the orders will only be available for a limited time and must be claimed quickly.
The new initiative is designed to be a win-win for all parties involved.
The amount paid by the new customer will be shared with both the restaurant partner and the original customer (if the order was prepaid). Zomato will not retain any proceeds from the sale, except for the required government taxes.
Certain types of orders, such as those containing temperature-sensitive items like ice cream, shakes, or smoothies, will not be eligible for Food Rescue due to the risk of spoilage.
Most restaurant partners have opted into the feature, and they retain the right to opt-out whenever they wish.
Zomato’s Food Rescue feature is expected to reduce food waste significantly while offering customers an opportunity to save money on perfectly good meals.
It will be automatically displayed on the home page of the app if there are canceled orders available in the area. To access these deals, users simply need to refresh their home page.
Delivery partners will also benefit from the feature, as they will be fully compensated for the entire journey, from picking up the canceled order to delivering it to the new customer’s location.
