Food Rescue: Zomato introduces new feature to reduce food wastage

"Now, cancelled orders will appear for nearby customers, who can buy them at a great price, in their original, untampered packaging, and receive them in minutes," Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday (Nov. 10).

According to Goyal, over 400,000 orders are cancelled each month on Zomato for various reasons, even with the platform’s no-refund policy.

The feature will display cancelled orders for customers within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner carrying the order, with a short claim window to ensure food freshness.

However, perishable items like ice creams, shakes, and smoothies are not eligible for Food Rescue.

"Zomato won’t keep any proceeds from these sales, except for required taxes," Goyal said. "The payment made by the new customer will be shared with the original customer (if paid online) and the restaurant partner."

Zomato also plans to fully compensate delivery partners for cancelled trips.

The company had an average of 498,000 active monthly delivery partners last quarter, according to its latest shareholder report.

Restaurant partners will continue to receive payment for the original cancelled order, plus a portion of the new payment if the order is claimed by another customer.

The Gurgaon-based company has recently introduced several new features.

It launched "Brand Packs" for users to buy discount coupons for frequently ordered restaurants and introduced an order history counter showing users their total orders on the app.

In April, Zomato piloted priority deliveries, allowing users to get their food faster for an additional Rs 19-29 per order, and tested a “pay later” option where customers could pay any time before delivery.

In the September quarter, Zomato reported a 68 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in operating revenue to Rs 4,799 crore, with a profit of Rs 176 crore.

The food delivery segment recorded a gross order value of Rs 9,690 crore, up 21 percent from last year.