Nearly half of online grocery shoppers struggle to find shelf-life information, while compliance has improved only marginally since 2024
Five of eight major online grocery platforms assessed in June did not display Best Before dates for packaged food products, raising concerns over how much shelf life consumers can actually assess before placing an order. A survey of 17,133 online grocery shoppers found that 48 per cent could not find Best Before information on most platforms they used, according to LocalCircles.
Amazon Now, BigBasket and Flipkart Minutes were the only three platforms found compliant in LocalCircles’ June assessment. Milkbasket, JioMart, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto were found not to be displaying the required information across packaged food products, according to the assessment.
The findings point to a persistent information gap in online grocery shopping, where consumers may have limited visibility of how much shelf life remains on a product before placing an order. In a physical store, a shopper can check the date printed on a packet before paying. Online, the equivalent information needs to be available on the product listing for the consumer to make the same decision.
The situation has improved from 2024, but only modestly. LocalCircles found that 57 per cent of consumers in its 2024 assessment could not find Best Before information on most online grocery platforms. The latest figure of 48 per cent represents a nine-percentage-point improvement.
Only 13 per cent of respondents in the latest survey said the Best Before date was displayed on all online grocery apps and websites they used. Another 13 per cent said it was displayed on most platforms, while 21 per cent found it on some platforms and 13 per cent on only a few.
Shelf Life Remains Unclear
The largest single group, accounting for 35 per cent of respondents, said they could not find the Best Before date on any online grocery app or website. Five per cent did not provide a clear response. The platform assessment also found that some operators provide a product’s stated shelf life without giving its manufacturing date or Best Before date. For a shopper, a shelf-life figure alone does not establish how much shelf life remains on the particular product being purchased.
The distinction is especially relevant for products with short shelf lives. LocalCircles said it has received hundreds of consumer complaints involving near-expiry products delivered through online platforms. Bread is one of the commonly cited examples, with consumers reporting deliveries with one or two days of shelf life remaining against an average shelf life of around five to seven days.
Some consumers have also alleged that platforms purchase inventory with limited shelf life remaining and subsequently offer those products at steep discounts. These are consumer allegations and have not been independently established by the LocalCircles assessment.
The disclosure issue exists alongside existing food-safety requirements for online grocery platforms. FSSAI regulations require ecommerce and quick-commerce operators to ensure that packaged food delivered to consumers has at least 30 per cent of its shelf life remaining or 45 days before expiry, as applicable.
However, the requirement concerns the shelf life of food at delivery and is different from giving a consumer clear information about the remaining shelf life before an order is placed.
Regulators Move To Enforce Disclosure
Separately, the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2017 require packaged products sold through ecommerce platforms to carry declarations including the Best Before or Use By date, with the day, month and year.
The issue has involved both regulators because food products are governed by FSSAI’s food-safety framework, while declarations required under the packaged-commodity rules fall under Legal Metrology.
LocalCircles has been raising the issue with FSSAI since 2024. Following an escalation in October 2024, the food regulator warned some platforms against selling consumable products with missing or near-expiry dates, according to the organisation. However, LocalCircles said FSSAI did not at that stage direct platforms to display Best Before dates on their apps and websites.
The Legal Metrology Department and FSSAI have now separately confirmed to LocalCircles that they will enforce the mandatory display of Best Before or Use By dates for packaged human-consumption products sold through ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms.
LocalCircles said it will share its latest findings with the two regulators and the Central Consumer Protection Authority and conduct a follow-up assessment to track whether platforms begin displaying Best Before dates consistently.
For online grocery platforms, compliance could require product-level date information to be accurately reflected online, particularly where the same product is stocked in different batches across warehouses and quick-commerce fulfilment centres.
For consumers, the issue is ultimately about whether the information is available before the purchase decision is made, rather than only when the product reaches their doorstep.
