Zomato addresses claims of drugs being sold on app: ‘We block alcohol, cigarettes, vapes’ | Trending

Nov 21, 2024 02:53 PM Zomato has addressed concerns over suspicious ‘one-dish’ restaurants selling items with vague names at high prices. Food delivery giant Zomato has finally addressed the viral claims about suspicious ‘one-dish’ restaurants on their app selling undisclosed items with names like “Naughty Strawberry” and “Merry Berry” for high prices. In a Reddit post, a user claimed that such one-dish restaurants have been spotted on Zomato in Chandigarh.(Reuters, X/@nitish_an) Responding to a query HT.com, a Zomato spokesperson said that the company has noticed social media conversations around single-dish restaurants led on Zomato and identified suspicious restaurants. “We have identified all such restaurants that were potentially fraudulent and have deled them from our platform. To solve this more comprehensively, we have also investigated all other restaurants which have a very limited menu on Zomato and might have led prohibited items or worked around a way to l prohibited items,” they said. (Also read: Suspicious ‘one-dish’ restaurants pop up on Zomato. The only thing they sell is…) The food delivery company said that all restaurants led on Zomato need to have a FSSAI license according to their policy. “We also actively block items such as alcohol, cigarettes/cigars/vapes from being led on our platform,” they said. However, Zomato agreed that the “one-dish” restaurants were able to “game our checks” using generic food names such as, ‘Naughty strawberry’ and ‘Merry Berry’. “We have further strengthened our fraud checks to proactively identify such cases to avoid similar incidents in the future,” the Zomato spokesperson said. What are ‘one-dish’ restaurants?Users on social media flagged a bizarre trend cropping up on Zomato of restaurants offering just one food item appearing in Chandigarh. The outlets have only been offering a single dish at bizarrely-high prices and netizens are confused about what the food item is. In a Reddit post, a user claimed that such restaurants, with no reviews or only negative reviews, have been spotted many Zomato users in the past few days. (Also read: Deepinder Goyal seeks Zomato chief of staff: Forget salary, pay ₹20 lakh) From ‘Naughty Strawberry’ to ‘Blue Adventure’ to ‘Citrus Punch’, the names of the dishes do not clarify what the food item being sold is but that has not stopped users from speculating about the kind of goods being sold. While many labelled the outlets as fronts for drug delivery or money laundering, others claimed that the names of the dishes referred to vape flavours. Get Latest Updates on… See more News / Trending / Zomato addresses claims of drugs being sold on app: ‘We block alcohol, cigarettes, vapes’