A restaurant kitchen can look immaculate from the dining room. A milk tanker can look like any other on the highway. A packet of paneer can carry a familiar brand name.

The problem begins where the consumer cannot see.

Inside warehouses, kitchens, dairies and processing units, food-safety officers are looking for what a label cannot reveal: expired products, poor refrigeration, unsafe handling, adulteration and conditions in which food can become a public-health risk.

Across India, 2025 and 2026 have seen food-safety enforcement move beyond the familiar pre-Diwali raid. Surprise inspections, laboratory testing, licence suspensions, seizures and destruction of unsafe food are becoming part of wider state-level campaigns.

At the centre of one of the most visible crackdowns is Tukaram Mundhe, Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration commissioner. 

But his campaign is one part of a wider shift, with officers such as Roshan Jacob in Uttar Pradesh, T Shubhamangala in Rajasthan and Kanwalpreet Brar in Punjab approaching food safety through enforcement, surveillance, testing and education.

Maharashtra: Tukaram Mundhe takes the fight inside the kitchen

When Tukaram Mundhe took charge of Maharashtra’s FDA in May 2026, inspections became a public affair.

Between 25 May and 31 July, the department inspected 3,137 hotels, restaurants, eateries and other establishments. It suspended 165 licences and seized or destroyed 28.66 lakh kg of unsafe food valued at Rs 55.72 crore.

The inspections did not stop at small eateries. FDA teams visited restaurants, dairies, hotel kitchens, warehouses, canteens and food businesses connected to delivery platforms.

In August, the department inspected 86 establishments involved in online food sales and delivery, issuing 60 improvement notices and suspending 14 licences linked to platforms including Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart.

Just Speak FDA Maharashtra has launched grievance redressal portal for citizens. It is AI enabled platform, having auto assignment, auto escalation and built in accountability with traceability features . https://t.co/597si71Z6E#TukaramMundhe#FDA — Tukaram Mundhe........

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