In a bid to tackle food wastage and offer budget-friendly options, food delivery giant Zomato has rolled out a new feature called “Food Rescue,” enabling users to purchase cancelled orders at discounted rates.

The initiative, announced by Zomato’s co-founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal, aims to repurpose food that would otherwise go to waste due to customer cancellations.

“Cancelled orders will now pop up for nearby customers, who can grab them at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging, and receive them in just minutes,” Goyal wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. He further elaborated that over 400,000 orders are cancelled monthly on the platform, often due to a variety of reasons despite Zomato’s no-refund policy.

The Food Rescue feature is designed to alert potential buyers located within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner holding the cancelled order. Once notified, customers can choose to purchase the meal at a discounted price, provided they act quickly. “To ensure freshness, the option to claim will only be available for a few minutes,” Goyal added, ensuring that the rescued food remains fresh and enjoyable for the next customer.

However, certain items with short shelf lives, such as ice creams, shakes, and smoothies, are exempt from Food Rescue due to quality concerns.

Zomato’s approach also aligns with its commitment to transparency and fairness. The platform will not retain any profits from the re-sale, aside from government taxes. Instead, the payment made by the new customer will be divided between the original customer (if they paid online) and the restaurant partner.

The company also plans to fully compensate its delivery partners for the original trip, ensuring they are not financially impacted by the cancellation.

Zomato reported an average of 498,000 active delivery partners monthly in the last quarter, underscoring the scale of its delivery network and the potential reach of this initiative.

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