Quick-commerce food safety has become a serious compliance issue for small food businesses selling through online platforms.
In July 2026, one major quick-commerce platform received nine formal notices after consumer complaints about expired, spoiled, and contaminated food, including rotten eggs, spoiled parathas, expired whey protein, and an infant food formulation that arrived in a deteriorated and unsafe condition.
If you sell through quick commerce, this raises a question worth taking seriously. If a customer gets expired or unsafe food, who may be responsible? You, the platform, or the dark store that stored it?
Quick-Commerce Food Safety: Everyone in the Chain Has a Role
Under India’s Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, more than one party may have liability. It depends on the role each party played and what happened to the food.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 defines “food business” broadly .It covers activity such as manufacturing, processing, storage, transport, distribution, or import of food. A Food Business Operator is the person who runs or owns that business.The FBO must ensure that the business complies with the Act.
Two sections matter most. Section 26 requires equires every FBO to ensure that food meets the Act and applicable regulations at the stages of the business under its control.
For expired food in particular, Section 27 is important because it specifically addresses the liability of wholesalers, distributors and sellers for food supplied or sold after its expiry date. The exact allocation of responsibility depends on the role of each business and the circumstances in which the food became non-compliant.
Responsibility generally depends on the activity each business undertakes and controls, rather than simply on which app the customer used to place the order.
A manufacturer or packer may be responsible for compliance of the food it produces or packs; a wholesaler, distributor or seller may have separate responsibilities for how food is stored, handled and sold
An e-commerce operator may have its own obligations as an e-commerce FBO. Where a platform or its associated business also owns or controls inventory, storage or sale, its responsibilities may extend to those activities as well.
Marketplace versus inventory led: why it decides your risk
Some quick-commerce platforms still run as a marketplace model, where independent sellers list and fulfil their own orders and the platform just provides the interface.
That model is changing across the industry. Recently, one major platform secured the shareholder and regulatory approvals needed to hold inventory directly,
The shift to an inventory-led model could take another two to four quarters. If the transition proceeds as planned, the move would give the platform greater control over inventory, pricing, assortment and supply-chain operations
Another major quick-commerce platform has already shifted largely to an inventory-led model. Around 90% of its net order value came from its own inventory in a recent quarter
Regulators have also acted where a food product was marketed under a brand category not covered by the relevant FSSAI licence. In the 2026 notices, FSSAI directed the FBO concerned to stop marketing NOICE Eggs until the product was covered by a valid licence and to seek licence modification where required.
The takeaway for you as a small business is simple. If you’re a third party seller in a marketplace model, you’re still the FBO for your own products. Labelling, ingredient safety, and shelf life accuracy remain yours to own, even though the platform carries its own separate obligations too.
What Small Food Businesses Should Actually Do
- Set a real shelf life and dispatch policy in writing, rather than leaving it to judgment calls. Follow the FSSAI requirement for sufficient remaining shelf life. FSSAI has directed e-commerce FBOs to ensure that food delivered to consumers has at least 30% shelf life remaining or 45 days before expiry, whichever is applicable. Build this into your own dispatch policy rather than relying on last-minute checks
- Use FIFO and FEFO stock rotation, first in first out and first expired first out, with batch codes and expiry dates marked clearly so warehouse staff can rotate stock correctly.
- Be specific about storage needs. If your product requires chilling or freezing, confirm that the relevant storage and delivery operations can maintain the required conditions and keep appropriate records. If temperature requirements are unclear or undocumented, it can become harder to establish where a storage or handling failure occurred.
- Keep real records: supplier invoices, packing dates, batch codes, and dispatch logs. This is what lets you narrow a complaint to one batch instead of your whole line looking suspect.
- Log every complaint and the corrective & preventive actions taken, and follow the Food Recall Procedure Regulations, 2017 if something serious comes up.
Quick commerce is a fast-moving, high-visibility channel, and recent enforcement activity shows that food-safety compliance can involve multiple businesses across the supply chain. The safest approach for a small food business is to treat shelf-life controls, storage requirements, stock rotation and traceability records as non-negotiable, regardless of the platform through which the product is soldr.
This article is for general information only and is not legal or regulatory advice. Please verify your specific obligations through official FSSAI resources or with a qualified food-safety professional.
