Nobody likes to see unsavoury stuff in the food they’ve ordered. That not only kills appetite but also makes a user lose trust in the food delivery sector as a whole. Our constant endeavour at Zomato is to make the quality of food better, and make it accessible to more people. In line with our mission of “better food for more people”.

To help set and improve hygiene standards followed by restaurants, a couple of years ago, for the first time in the world for a food/restaurant aggregator, we introduced hygiene audits/ratings on our platform. The idea was to introduce the concept of standardised kitchen hygiene to the restaurant industry in India, and reward restaurant operators who care about the hygiene of their premises compared to those who don’t.
Fast forward to February of 2019 and the sheer acceptance of Hygiene Ratings in the industry is a testament to its rising relevance. As of today, more than 10,000 restaurants have Zomato’s Food Hygiene Ratings displayed on their pages. That figure translates to over 80% of the volume for our online ordering business. Yes, that’s how effective this particular initiative has been so far. Over time, this initiative has helped us reduce customer complaints about unhygienic food by over 92%!
As a user, you can check (if you aren’t already doing so) these ratings on your favourite restaurants’ page –

To give you a background on these ratings, Zomato operates with accredited third-party auditors. These auditors are experts in the field of hygiene and conduct surprise physical food hygiene audits at participating restaurants. Such audits lay major emphasis on whether a restaurant fulfills various aspects of food hygiene. Factors such as the handling of food, separation of cooking spaces for vegetarian and non-vegetarian items, basic cleanliness, pest control, raw material processing, etc. – are taken into consideration before the ratings are allotted.

We will continue to press hard on this initiative and also gradually raise the bar for food hygiene in our country. All in a day’s work for building “better food for more people”.