Under the new operational mandate, restaurant partners unable to make an immediate transition to genuine milk dairy have been instructed to remove analogue dishes entirely from their digital menus. Zomato has additionally directed restaurants to rigorously review supplier labels and raw material declarations to ensure that menu descriptions precisely reflect the ingredients served to consumers, warning that non-compliant eateries face complete delisting from the app.

Aditya Mangla, CEO of Zomato, stated that the platform’s core mission of delivering better food requires upholding clear transparency standards and safeguarding consumer health. Analogue paneer—which substitutes natural milk fat with hydrogenated vegetable oils, starches, plant proteins, and chemical emulsifiers—has drawn significant controversy across the restaurant sector for being marketed deceptively as conventional cottage cheese at lower price points.

Zomato’s commercial ban follows intensified regulatory scrutiny from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). While food safety regulations permit the sale of properly labelled analogue alternatives, the FSSAI reiterated that passing off cheese analogues or non-dairy preparations as “paneer” constitutes a direct violation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.