- Zomato introduces zero-tolerance policy and immediately delists dishes containing declared analogue dairy products
- Restaurants must switch to natural dairy, remove affected dishes or risk being delisted from India’s leading food-delivery marketplace
- Move comes amid heightened food-safety scrutiny and regulatory action against analogue paneer and cheese across India
- The bigger question for consumers: Can a digital food platform make transparency—and not merely price—the new ingredient in every online order?
NE FOOD & HEALTH BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, AUG 31
A paneer tikka may look like paneer, a cheese burst may melt like cheese and a creamy gravy may taste unmistakably dairy—but what happens when the ingredient behind the name is not what the customer thinks it is?
That question has acquired fresh significance with Zomato announcing an immediate zero-tolerance policy on analogue dairy products, including analogue cheese and analogue paneer, on its platform.
The food-delivery company said dishes that restaurant partners have declared as containing analogue dairy have been delisted with immediate effect, while restaurants that fail to comply with the new policy could themselves be removed from the platform.
The decision places a powerful new intermediary between restaurants and consumers: the food-delivery platform itself.
And its message is unambiguous—if the food is described as one thing but made with an analogue substitute, it should not be sold through Zomato.
Why has Zomato taken this important decision?
The immediate reason is consumer transparency and food quality, but the timing is equally important.
India has witnessed growing scrutiny of analogue dairy products, particularly analogue paneer and cheese, amid concerns over misleading representation and food-safety compliance.
FSSAI’s regulatory work has increasingly focused on ensuring that consumers are not led to believe that a non-dairy analogue is a conventional dairy product. Its 2025 consultation paper proposed that restaurants using dairy analogues should clearly prefix “Non-dairy” or “Analogue” to the relevant dairy term on menus.
In April this year, FSSAI’s Western Region also issued a public notice warning that using cheese analogue as paneer and presenting it as paneer-based food on menus violates food-safety laws and regulations.
The regulatory pressure intensified in Maharashtra, where the Food and Drug Administration imposed a one-year statewide ban on the manufacture, storage, distribution, transportation and sale of analogue or artificial non-dairy paneer.
Enforcement has followed. The Maharashtra FDA suspended food licences at Mumbai’s Otters Club over the use of analogue paneer, while the Bombay High Court subsequently refused interim relief to a Thane restaurant facing action for serving the banned product.
Against this backdrop, Zomato’s move can be viewed as a marketplace-level response to a rapidly tightening food-transparency environment.
What exactly is Zomato banning?
Analogue dairy products are designed to imitate conventional dairy foods. In products such as analogue paneer or cheese, some or all dairy components may be replaced with alternatives such as vegetable fats, oils, starches, plant proteins and other functional ingredients that reproduce the appearance, texture or cooking characteristics of dairy.
Importantly, an analogue product is not automatically synonymous with an unsafe product. The central consumer issue is often whether it is accurately identified and whether the consumer knows what they are buying.
That distinction makes Zomato’s policy particularly significant.
The platform is not merely asking restaurants to label an analogue product correctly.
It is saying that declared analogue dairy dishes will not remain on the platform at all.
“Our priority is to ensure that customers receive food that is accurately represented”
In its communication to restaurant partners, Zomato said: “Our priority is to ensure that customers receive food that is accurately represented, safe and meets the expected quality standards.”
The company said its policy covers analogue cheese, analogue paneer and other analogue dairy products.
Restaurants that have already declared the use of such ingredients have been instructed to take immediate corrective measures.
They have three broad choices:
- Switch to natural dairy products;
- Remove affected dishes from their menus if an immediate switch is not feasible;
- Review supplier labels and ingredient declarations to ensure that what is being served matches what is represented on Zomato.
Restaurants that remain non-compliant face the possibility of delisting.
Zomato has also said it may recover losses, costs, damages or expenses it incurs because of non-compliant products delivered to customers.
“Better food for more people” gets a sharper meaning
Aditya Mangla, CEO, Zomato, said the decision is rooted in the company’s larger consumer mission.
“At Zomato, our core mission is better food for more people, and that means safeguarding customer health and upholding clear standards for what’s listed and served by our restaurant partners.”
He added:
“This policy reflects that commitment, one we’re taking together with partners who share it.”
The statement is significant because Zomato is no longer functioning merely as a digital menu and delivery intermediary.
With millions of food choices presented to consumers through its marketplace, what appears on the platform itself becomes part of the consumer’s expectation of what will arrive at the doorstep.
That creates a strong incentive for the platform to scrutinise not only restaurant availability and ratings but also the accuracy of food descriptions.
The hidden cost of a cheaper substitute
Why do restaurants use analogue dairy products?
The answer can often be economic and operational: substitutes may be cheaper, easier to source, have different storage characteristics or offer functional advantages in commercial kitchens.
For restaurants operating on thin margins, ingredient costs matter.
But the consumer’s calculation is different.
A customer ordering paneer may be paying for a dairy product with an expected nutritional profile, taste and composition. If a substitute is used without clear disclosure, the consumer loses the ability to make an informed choice.
That is where the controversy moves beyond the question of “real” versus “fake”.
It becomes a question of informed consent at the dinner table.
A policy that may change restaurant menus
Zomato’s decision could have a wider impact because of the sheer scale of the digital food marketplace.
A restaurant may previously have considered analogue dairy primarily as an ingredient-sourcing decision.
Now it becomes a platform-compliance decision.
Restaurants will have to examine supplier declarations, ingredient labels and menu descriptions more carefully.
The move could also encourage greater discipline across the food-delivery ecosystem, particularly as consumers increasingly seek information about ingredients, nutrition, allergens and food quality before placing an order.
At the same time, Zomato’s policy should not be mistaken for a substitute for statutory food-safety enforcement.
Regulators determine what is legally permitted; Zomato determines what it will permit on its marketplace.
That distinction is important.
The larger question: What exactly are we ordering?
The analogue-dairy debate ultimately raises a deceptively simple question:
When consumers click on a food photograph and order a dish described as paneer or cheese, how certain are they that the ingredient is what they believe it to be?
Zomato’s answer is now unusually forceful.
Rather than leaving the burden entirely on consumers to decipher menus and ingredient labels, it is attempting to put the responsibility partly on the restaurant—and partly on itself as the platform facilitating the transaction.
That could become a significant shift in India’s food-delivery business.
Because the future of food ordering may not be determined only by how fast a meal arrives, how attractive the photograph looks or how many stars a restaurant has.
It may increasingly depend on one more question: Does the food on the screen tell the truth about the food on the plate?
Zomato’s latest policy is an attempt to make sure the answer is yes.
