Man orders sandwich on Zomato, discovers ‘glove' in food; company calls it ‘absolutely shocking'
A Gurugram CPA alleged he found a glove in a Zomato sandwich, calling it ‘unacceptable’ and a ‘serious hygiene concern.’ He tagged Zomato, its care team and FSSAI, sparking food safety concerns.
A customer in Gurugram has raised concerns over food hygiene after claiming to have found a glove inside a sandwich ordered via food delivery platform Zomato.
The customer, Satish Sarawagi, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), posted on social media on Tuesday, tagging Zomato, Zomato Care and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). He described the discovery as “unacceptable" and a “serious hygiene concern.”
How did Zomato respond?
“I ordered a sandwich and found a glove inside the food! This is unacceptable and a serious hygiene concern. Please investigate and respond ASAP," Sarawagi wrote.
Zomato Care replied within 30 minutes, saying it was “absolutely shocked” and apologised for the distress. The company said it would investigate the matter with the restaurant partner and follow up directly with the customer.
“Hi Satish, we’re absolutely shocked to hear about this. We can’t begin to imagine how upsetting this must have been for you. Please allow us some time so that we can take this up with the restaurant partner, we’ll get in touch with you to discuss this further," the platform responded.
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Is this part of a wider food safety concern?
The incident recalls previous cases of food safety lapses shared by disgruntled customers online. In one widely reported case in 2023, a Bengaluru man who ordered from FreshMenu, a cloud kitchen promoted on delivery apps as offering healthy meals, found a live worm wriggling inside one of his meal boxes. He had placed the order via Zomato and later shared a now-viral video showing all three boxes, zooming in to reveal the worm.
After the video was shared, Fresh Menu issued an apology and assured that proper action would be taken. They wrote, "Pratik, we are writing to extend our sincerest apologies for the incident you experienced with your recent order from FreshMenu. Finding a live worm in your salad is absolutely unacceptable, and we are deeply sorry for this lapse on our kitchen's part. To address this matter, our team acted immediately upon learning of the incident. Our representatives visited you in person to understand your concerns and offer our apologies directly. Furthermore, we have identified the lapse in our processes and have taken strict disciplinary action against the team responsible to prevent such incidents from happening again. Additional training and heightened checks have also been implemented across our kitchens."