Shantanu Deshpande, founder and CEO of men's grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company, has criticised the food-tech industry's rush to deliver meals in 10 minutes, pointing out concerning trends that could have serious implications on people's health. Deshpande, in his latest LinkedIn post, said he lost his mind when a quick-commerce co-founder told him that for a 10-minute food delivery, "cook time" is 2 minutes, while delivery time is 8 minutes.

"We are suffering from the biggest epidemic of poor nutrition and unhealthy processed and ultra-processed food, which is high on palm oil and sugar. Our grains have lost nutrition over the last 50 years as we prioritised agricultural yield for nutrition," says Deshpande.

Deshpande says India is heading towards the path of countries like China and the U.S., without having adequate health coverage. "Our junk food addiction, fuelled by 49 rs pizzas and 20 rs poison energy drinks and 30 rs burgers, is taking us down the path of China and the US without the economic cover needed for health."

He also highlights the issue of companies resorting to offering poor-quality food while making sure the food gets delivered in 10 minutes. "Frozen purees and curries and old vegetables heated and garnished with dhaniya to look fresh and slammed in some 2 wheeler who rides like Mad Max to your door in 10 min cos you couldn't wait another 15 min or you were too lazy to chadhao a cooker of daal chawal."

Giving a piece of advice to the big quick commerce players to not fall for this game, Deshpande says if companies are so keen to deliver the food in such a short span, they should make it "palatable". "And all the investors and founders are already finding fancy words for this to bake it into the next big wave of Indian commerce. Zomato and Swiggy and Zepto - please, dont. And if you are so keen, please make the product palatable. I would LOVE if we innovate and are able to actually give non-stale and decent food in 10 min. Massive unlock. But I don't think we're close to there yet."

While urging regulators to "keep an eye", purportedly on the quality of food being served to customers, the entrepreneur also offers advice to those who regularly order food on such platforms, saying people should learn basic cooking skills, and that if not controlled, it can power some "wild long-term health issues". "Most of all, everyone else - please cook. It's an adult skill. No one is too busy to take 10 min out to put a decent dal Chawal or smoothie or salad or sandwich together. The gut is the epicenter of your existence. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT."

Each of the top food-tech players has come up with its version of quick-commerce delivery, which promises the delivery of certain select food items in the shortest possible time. A concept pioneered by Zepto for grocery deliveries, quick-commerce has become one of the fastest-growing avenues for the food-tech players.

After Zepto last week said it'll soon launch Zepto Cafe, a 10-minute food delivery service, Blinkit, a Zomato-led grocery delivery platform, announced a 10-minute food delivery service called Bistro. Bistro is the second iteration in the Zomato ecosystem after Instant, which was shut down less than a year after its launch in 2023 amid the company's focus on profitability.

Zomato's biggest rival in the food-tech space, Swiggy, which runs Instamart for grocery deliveries, also launched "Bolt" in October to provide food delivery in 10 minutes. The service is already operational across six major cities -- Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, and Bangalore. Zepto has already started pilots of Zepto Cafe, which is its 10-minute food delivery unit, across Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Bigger players like Amazon have also announced their foray by promising a 15-minute delivery service. While Amazon is hesitating to call it quick commerce, the e-commerce giant says the bet is on convenience, value and the wide range of seller networks that Amazon boasts.

A Redseer report says quick commerce will grow at 60-80% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) to ₹2.3-4.2 lakh crore ($29-53 billion) by 2028. It is currently at $2.8 billion. Growth is expected to be 80-100% over the next two years on the back of user adoption, geographical expansion, rising average order value and increase in basket size. Globally, the quick commerce market is estimated to grow to $266 billion by 2029, from $171 billion in 2024, according to data-gathering platform Statista.