Rebel Foods’ food delivery app to use UV sanitised packaging for orders

With an aim of putting control back into the hands of the consumers who order food online, cloud kitchen brand Rebel Foods has revamped its food ordering platform, from ‘Faasos’ to ‘EatSure’.

With the same technical outline, but different UX and UI, the platform was launched earlier last week to help the users order food from multiple restaurants in the same order, much like Dunzo’s ‘Food Court’.

The differentiator here being the four Ps the brand builds on: People, Process, Produce and Packaging, Sagar Kochhar, co-founder, Rebel Foods, tells us (afaqs!) over a call.

‘People’ are the chefs who prepare the food, ‘Process’ refers to the steps involved in food preparation, ‘Produce’ refers to the food ingredients and ‘Packaging’ is the carry/takeaway bag the food is packed in, he elaborates.

Kochhar mentions that according to the brand’s research, both in pre and post-COVID world, it was found that these four Ps concern the consumers most when it comes to ordering food online.

“While the rating of the restaurant on the delivery app may give an idea of the quality of food it delivers, there is very little or no information about the people who prepare the food. Similarly, there is no or very little information about the food preparation process – is the vegetarian and non-vegetarian food being prepared separately, or are basic sanitisation steps being followed. There are hundreds of questions in the minds of the consumers,” Kochhar shares.

He adds, “Also, in the current (COVID) times, the consumers are conscious of the food items they eat. They have started looking out for immunity-boosting meals. And, of course, the packet of the food that passes through many hands is a pain point. Loose packaging, food received in polybags, broken bags, soggy paper bags… are some of the feedback we received.”

The EatSure app, says Kochhar, gives exact information of who is preparing the food. It also gives access to the chef’s doctor-validated medical certificate, along with his body temperature.

The EatSure-certified partner kitchens adhere to 200-plus quality checks, including maintaining the right food temperature, taking care of step by step sanitisation process, and separate preparation of veg and non-veg food. EatSure also mandates that no brand uses artificial flavours or colours in any of the produce.

“We believe in giving complete transparency to the consumers on what ingredients are being used in the preparation of food. It goes to the level of telling the consumers the calorific value of each item – fat, protein, carb components. Other apps in the space don’t even have control on how the food is being prepared,” Kochhar points out.

The food ordered on EatSure will be delivered in double sealed packaging – ‘UV sure bags’. Food packets are put in an outer cover/bag, which is run through a UV chamber, deployed at all partner kitchens, before being handed over to the delivery person. The UV chamber disinfects both the outer and inner surfaces of the bags.

The outer bag comes with two sanitiser pods, one on each handle of the pack.

The concept of UV Sure Bag was developed completely in-house by the Consumer Solutions Group (CSG) of Rebel Foods. The brand has associated with some of its old partners to produce them.

Kochhar tells us that the company was working on many broken keys of this initiative since its inception in 2011, but only started putting it together about four months back.

“No artificial flavours or colouring, proper sanitisation of food, taking care of hygiene in the food preparation process… the core was always there. It was an unsaid rule with which we always worked. The current times gave us the opportunity to bring out our vision to the world, and that is how EatSure was born,” he says.

So, who does the brand see as its rivals? “EatSure is like a smart food court with most trusted brands. Hence, the comparison becomes difficult because it is not just a digital-first initiative. We are also activating multiple physical presence at multiple touchpoints,” Kochhar says.

The brand has gone live with EatSure food trucks that are stationed at high-end streets, apartments, colleges, corporate areas of Mumbai and Bengaluru. Kochhar explains that the trucks are a digital-first interaction initiative, where users can scan the QR code to order. They are informed when their order is ready and can either choose to pick it up, or opt for it to be delivered to their desk/doorsteps.

Rebel Foods is also looking at enabling physical food courts in leading malls of the country and expressways with heavy traffic. Earlier this week, the brand also went live with a “digital-first contactless takeaway” at one of its kitchens in Mumbai.

For a contactless takeaway, the users place an order on the app, scan QR code at the takeaway window when the order is ready (they are notified on the app), and a window with food in a UV sure packet will pop open.

“We did a couple of pilot projects in different kitchens over the past month before finally launching the service in Mumbai and Bengaluru. These two cities are the learning platforms for us. They also happen to be 30 per cent of our network. We are taking a pause to receive consumer feedback before we scale up the initiative,” Kochhar tells us.

The app currently allows ordering food from 10 brands other than the ones owned by Rebel Foods (Behrouz Biryani, Oven Story Pizza, Faasos, and Mandarin Oak).

Elaborating the on-boarding process of brands, Kochhar tells us that the initiative through which it partners with and brings other brands on-board is referred to as Rebel launcher. Under this initiative, the brand has an entire operating system, called the Rebel operating system (Rebel OS).

The Rebel OS includes three key things. First, the culinary expertise, to ensure that a brand is able to arrive at a recipe and scale it up for different parts of the country with consistency, and best ingredients, processes and practices in the kitchen.

Second, the supply chain, through which Rebel Foods activates the brand across its different kitchens. And third is technology, which ensures that everything is plugged in – right from making the brand available to the consumers across other aggregators, managing kitchen and other operations...

“In the past one year, we have realised that the Rebel OS is strong enough… We can open it up for other brands, which are EatSure-compliant. We now partner with brands, bring them onto the Rebel OS and enable them across the kitchens. However, we are not blindly aggregating supply. We are selectively picking up brands that are category leaders. These could also be evolving brands that we could invest in. Across the globe, other than our own brands, the Rebel OS, as of today, has about 10 brands,” Kochhar says.

Other than India, Rebel Foods has presence in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, London, and the UAE.

Before signing off, Kochhar mentions that though there are no big communication plans in the pipeline for EatSure, it will make noise on digital media platforms.