Compliance of FSSAI regulations by E-Commerce Food Business Operators: Perspective of Consumers in Pune City

The rapid growth of the domestic food market with the widespread use of food delivery applications has led to intense market competition. With increasing reliance of consumers on these services, it is necessary to check their compliance with the FSSAI regulations. This study explores the compliance of regulations developed by the FSSAI to facilitate consumer rights in the ecommerce food delivery system in India, from the perspective of the consumers in Pune city. The paper begins with a general discussion of the present regulatory requirements which are to be adopted by Food Business Operators (FBOs) involved in the ecommerce market in India. Next, the paper assesses the responses of a sample of users of food delivery app services in Pune city to find out if the ecommerce FBOs comply with the FSSAI requirements of display of food images, information about the food, correspondence of the food item with the image displayed. The assessment finds that ecommerce FBOs have complied with some of the FSSAI requirements in this regard. Finally, the paper concludes that to ensure compliance of the regulations by the FBOs, there is a need to fix liability for different forms of ecommerce FBOs based on their involvement in facilitating orders and providing deliveries. Legal implications and future research lines are suggested. The study will be of value to consumers, researchers and concerned agencies involved in the food industry.