New Delhi: In response to the recent online criticism regarding the introduction of the “Pure Veg Mode” service, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday said that the food delivery platform will “roll it back in a heartbeat” if it leads to adverse societal impacts. In a detailed late-night post on X, Goyal addressed worries that Zomato’s regular delivery fleet might be denied entry by certain societies and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).
“There’s an opinion that some societies and RWAs will now not let our regular fleet in. We will stay alert for any such cases and work with these RWAs to not let this happen. We understand our social responsibility due to this change, and we will not back down from solving it when the need arises,” he stated.
Update on our pure veg fleet —
While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will…
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 20, 2024
Clarification On “Pure Veg Mode”
Goyal clarified that the “Pure Veg Mode” or the “Pure Veg Fleet” does not cater to or exclude any religious or political preferences. He further explained the rationale behind the company’s decision to introduce the “Pure Veg Mode” service.
“But why did we need to separate the fleets? Because despite everyone’s best efforts, sometimes the food spills into the delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell of the previous order travels to the next order, and may lead to the next order smelling of the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for veg orders,” Goyal explained.
Emphasizing Dietary Preference
The Zomato CEO stressed that the new service caters strictly to a dietary preference, regardless of an individual’s religion or caste, and that the participation of delivery partners in the new fleet will not be determined by their dietary preferences.
“I would like to repeat that this feature strictly serves a dietary preference. And I know there are a lot of customers who would never order food from a restaurant which serves meat, irrespective of their religion/caste,” Goyal said.
Goyal concluded his post by assuring that Zomato will retract the Pure Veg Mode service if it results in significant negative societal repercussions. “I promise that if we observe any significant negative societal repercussions as a result of this change, we will retract it instantly,” Goyal affirmed.
Launch Of “Pure Veg Mode” Service
The co-founder of Zomato announced the launch of a “Pure Veg Mode” service on Tuesday to cater to customers who strictly follow a vegetarian diet. Goyal attributed the feedback from vegetarian customers as the driving force behind the launch and announced that the online food delivery platform is also introducing a “Pure Veg Fleet” in India for customers who adhere to a 100% vegetarian diet.
“India has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most significant feedback we’ve received from them is their particular concern about how their food is cooked and handled,” Goyal said in a series of posts on X.
“To cater to their dietary preferences, we are launching a ‘Pure Veg Mode’ along with a ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ on Zomato today, for customers who have a 100% vegetarian dietary preference,” he added.
For the ‘Pure Veg Mode’, the company will collaborate with select restaurants that serve exclusively vegetarian food, excluding any establishments that offer non-vegetarian items. The Pure Veg Fleet will use green delivery boxes instead of the standard red ones.
Goyal stated that these delivery personnel will exclusively deliver orders from pure vegetarian restaurants and will not handle any non-vegetarian meals. Furthermore, they will not enter non-vegetarian restaurants while carrying the green delivery box.
“Our dedicated Pure Veg Fleet will only serve orders from these pure veg restaurants. This means that a non-veg meal, or even a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the green delivery box meant for our Pure Veg Fleet,” he concluded.