FSSAI Penalises Amazon, Flipkart, Instamart Over Regulatory Non-Compliance

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently issued penalties against several quick commerce and ecommerce platforms, including Amazon, Flipkart, and Instamart, for various food safety and regulatory violations. These platforms were found to engage in misbranding, misleading claims, and the sale of prohibited or potentially harmful food items through their e-commerce channels. The penalties were imposed based on products listed on these platforms.

Amazon was penalized for a product called Happilo Premium Date Bites (Zesty Orange), which contained misleading claims, and Datura fruits/seeds, which were non-compliant with regards to sale, display, and sale on the ecommerce platform. Similarly, Bigbasket's Happilo Premium Date Bites (Zesty Orange) faced the same issues, with Datura fruits/seeds and Milky Mist's Fresh Low Fat Cream, Farm Fresh Curd, and Greek Yoghurt also marked for misleading claims and non-compliant product information.

Flipkart faced penalties for the same Happilo Premium Date Bites (Zesty Orange) product. Swiggy Instamart similarly penalized Happilo Premium Date Bites (Zesty Orange) for misleading/non-compliant claims and also found Datura fruits/seeds and Milky Mist's Fresh Low Fat Cream, Farm Fresh Curd, and Greek Yoghurt non-compliant due to misleading claims and non-compliant product information. Zepto, too, was found at fault for Happilo Premium Date Bites (Zesty Orange) for misleading/non-compliant claims.

This news comes amidst heightened regulatory scrutiny over quick commerce platforms and the maintenance of their dark stores, which have also been subject to surprise checks at some of these dark stores. The regulatory checks are a response to the rapid expansion of these companies' dark store networks. As of June 2026, Blinkit operated 2,443 active dark stores across 300 cities, while Swiggy Instamart had 1,171 dark stores in 131 cities, and Zepto operated 1,139 dark stores across 66 cities.

Earlier this year, in August, Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended the licenses of 14 food business establishments linked to quick commerce platforms Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart following a state-wide inspection drive that uncovered numerous food safety and hygiene violations at multiple dark stores. Similar inspections were conducted in Karnataka, where a major Zepto warehouse in Bengaluru's Hoskote was sealed due to unhygienic conditions and food safety violations.