“Extremely Unhygienic”: Raid Exposes Filth In Zepto’s Bengaluru Warehouse
Food safety officials walked into a Zepto warehouse out in Hoskote, on the rural edge of the city, and what they saw stopped them cold. Organic waste just lying around. Discarded wrappers and empty bottles scattered across the floor. Dirt built up in places it shouldn’t be. Empty cardboard boxes left wherever. The whole place looked neglected. Officials didn’t mince words. They called the conditions “extremely unhygienic.”
The warehouse is run by Nippon Express for Zepto, the quick-commerce app people use to get groceries and snacks in minutes. The inspection was part of a special drive by the Food Safety Division of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department. They went in to check how food was being stored, handled, labelled, and kept safe. What they found was a list of problems: non-compliant labelling, misbranding, unhygienic handling, and storage that clearly didn’t meet the standards. All of it under the Food Safety and Standards Act and the FSSAI rules that are supposed to protect people.
They sealed the place right away. Issued a notice. And recommended that a case be filed against the facility. The department’s statement was straightforward. Strict action will be taken against anyone found breaking the rules. These drives will keep happening so people can actually trust the food that reaches them.
Pictures that came out later showed packets of food items just sitting around, soft drink cans and milk products kept in no particular order, and garbage mixed in with everything. It’s the kind of mess that makes you wonder what else is going on behind the scenes of those 10-minute deliveries.
This wasn’t a one-off raid. The same day, officials were checking Indira Canteen kitchens across the city. They sealed the central kitchen at Gottigere after finding similar unhygienic handling and storage issues. Notices went out to other canteens too. Samples of pulses, turmeric, oil, jaggery, salt, sugar and cooked food were taken for lab tests. The whole push is happening under the watch of Karnataka’s Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader.
On top of that, the Bengaluru North City Corporation slapped a ₹25,000 fine on Zepto at its Thanisandra spot for not keeping the place clean. So the pressure is coming from more than one direction.
Zepto’s response was measured. A spokesperson said the company had noted the observations and the suggestions from the officials and was taking steps to fix things. No big argument, just an acknowledgement that work needs to be done.
For a lot of people in Bengaluru who order milk, fruits, snacks or packaged food through the app without thinking twice, this hits differently. You tap a button, the bag arrives, and you assume everything along the way was handled properly. Seeing organic trash next to food packets and dirt on the floors of a warehouse that supplies those orders changes the picture. It forces you to ask how carefully the system is really being watched.
The food safety department has been busy in recent days. Hotels and restaurants have already been under the scanner. Expired items, fungal growth on vegetables, poor separation of veg and non-veg food — all of it has turned up. Now the net has widened to the warehouses and dark stores that keep the quick-commerce machine running. The officials are making it clear this isn’t going to stop. They want the public to get food that’s actually safe and clean.
Whether this particular sealing and the recommended case lead to lasting changes is something only time will show. What is obvious right now is that the authorities are not looking the other way. And for the people who rely on these apps every day, the images from that Hoskote warehouse are a reminder that convenience should never come at the cost of basic hygiene.
That’s the story as it stands. A sealed warehouse, a list of violations, and a push for cleaner practices in a sector that has grown faster than the oversight in some places.
Sources:
NDTV, The Hindu BusinessLine, India Today, Moneycontrol, Times of India, LiveMint, Hindustan Times, News18, Free Press Journal, Times Now (reports from 11–12 August 2026).
“Extremely Unhygienic”: Raid Exposes Filth In Zepto’s Bengaluru Warehouse
Food safety officials walked into a Zepto warehouse out in Hoskote, on the rural edge of the city, and what they saw stopped them cold. Organic waste just lying around. Discarded wrappers and empty bottles scattered across the floor. Dirt built up in places it shouldn’t be. Empty cardboard boxes left wherever. The whole place looked neglected. Officials didn’t mince words. They called the conditions “extremely unhygienic.”
The warehouse is run by Nippon Express for Zepto, the quick-commerce app people use to get groceries and snacks in minutes. The inspection was part of a special drive by the Food Safety Division of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department. They went in to check how food was being stored, handled, labelled, and kept safe. What they found was a list of problems: non-compliant labelling, misbranding, unhygienic handling, and storage that clearly didn’t meet the standards. All of it under the Food Safety and Standards Act and the FSSAI rules that are supposed to protect people.
They sealed the place right away. Issued a notice. And recommended that a case be filed against the facility. The department’s statement was straightforward. Strict action will be taken against anyone found breaking the rules. These drives will keep happening so people can actually trust the food that reaches them.
Pictures that came out later showed packets of food items just sitting around, soft drink cans and milk products kept in no particular order, and garbage mixed in with everything. It’s the kind of mess that makes you wonder what else is going on behind the scenes of those 10-minute deliveries.
This wasn’t a one-off raid. The same day, officials were checking Indira Canteen kitchens across the city. They sealed the central kitchen at Gottigere after finding similar unhygienic handling and storage issues. Notices went out to other canteens too. Samples of pulses, turmeric, oil, jaggery, salt, sugar and cooked food were taken for lab tests. The whole push is happening under the watch of Karnataka’s Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader.
On top of that, the Bengaluru North City Corporation slapped a ₹25,000 fine on Zepto at its Thanisandra spot for not keeping the place clean. So the pressure is coming from more than one direction.
Zepto’s response was measured. A spokesperson said the company had noted the observations and the suggestions from the officials and was taking steps to fix things. No big argument, just an acknowledgement that work needs to be done.
For a lot of people in Bengaluru who order milk, fruits, snacks or packaged food through the app without thinking twice, this hits differently. You tap a button, the bag arrives, and you assume everything along the way was handled properly. Seeing organic trash next to food packets and dirt on the floors of a warehouse that supplies those orders changes the picture. It forces you to ask how carefully the system is really being watched.
The food safety department has been busy in recent days. Hotels and restaurants have already been under the scanner. Expired items, fungal growth on vegetables, poor separation of veg and non-veg food — all of it has turned up. Now the net has widened to the warehouses and dark stores that keep the quick-commerce machine running. The officials are making it clear this isn’t going to stop. They want the public to get food that’s actually safe and clean.
Whether this particular sealing and the recommended case lead to lasting changes is something only time will show. What is obvious right now is that the authorities are not looking the other way. And for the people who rely on these apps every day, the images from that Hoskote warehouse are a reminder that convenience should never come at the cost of basic hygiene.
That’s the story as it stands. A sealed warehouse, a list of violations, and a push for cleaner practices in a sector that has grown faster than the oversight in some places.
Sources:
NDTV, The Hindu BusinessLine, India Today, Moneycontrol, Times of India, LiveMint, Hindustan Times, News18, Free Press Journal, Times Now (reports from 11–12 August 2026).
@Rohit Manral
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