After facing online backlash citing concerns around community and caste-based discrimination, Zomato has renamed its ‘pure veg’ mode to ‘veg only’ and dropped the plan to have a separate colour-coded fleet for exclusively delivering vegetarian food.
Several users expressed their dissatisfaction on social media with Zomato’s use of the term ‘pure veg’ and the decision to have their delivery staff wear green uniforms instead of the usual red when delivering vegetarian meals.
On Wednesday, Zomato rolled back the green uniforms that the pure-veg food-delivery fleet was earlier supposed to wear.
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“Delivery partners onboarded on Zomato will never be discriminated against on the basis of any criteria,” the company said while pointing out that customers cannot select delivery partners based on the drivers’ dietary preferences.
The food delivery platform has assured that the introduction of a separate fleet will not result in any changes or impact the pay-outs for delivery partners. According to a post on X, the “veg-only mode” will be available to users by next week and will be progressively implemented nationwide.
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In the December quarter, Zomato’s platform boasted an average of 419,000 monthly active delivery partners.
Zomato’s CEO, Deepinder Goyal, stated that the decision to introduce a veg-only mode was made in recognition of India’s status as the country with the largest vegetarian population globally. This initiative aligns with the company’s broader strategy to expand its total addressable market.
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