Zomato Issues Statement On Halal Meat After Its ‘Food Has No Religion’ Campaign Sparks Debate

Restaurant aggregator and food delivery platform - Zomato on Wednesday (31 July) launched a “Food has no religion” campaign in response to one of its customers cancelling an order after being assigned a Muslim delivery boy.

While the actions of the customer were almost universally panned on social media, many users questioned Zomato’s decision to piggyback on it to kickstart its aforementioned PR campaign.

Many argued that while Zomato on one hand was promoting the “secular” nature of food, it on the other hand was going the extra mile to assist customers who were wrongly delivered non-Halal dishes. People also questioned why unlike Halal, Zomato does not provide any Jhatka certification on its platform.

As the debate over Zomato’s alleged hypocrisy raged on, the company issued a statement addressing the issue.

In the statement titled, “food, religion and halal” Zomato claimed that it respects all religions and strives to provide various kinds of food like - Jain, Vegan and Navratra thalis.

It added that the halal tag which appears on its platform is a result of the restaurants’ own listing and Zomato is not involved in that process. It also said unlike FSSAI license, Halal certification is voluntary, and is designed to inform customers with a particular preference, and help him/her in case they order meat not confirming to this category.

Addressing the issue of Jhatka meat, Zomato claimed that there are no organising units for this meat type hence it does not feature this tag on the platform yet. It though indicated that it would be willing to do so in the future in case of customer demand.