Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has rejected allegations that the department is suspending licences of restaurants and food businesses without issuing show-cause notices, saying enforcement action is guided by the severity of violations under the Food Safety and Standards Act.
In a interview with The Free Press Journal, Mundhe said the law clearly differentiates between unsafe, adulterated, substandard and misbranded food, with immediate licence suspension permitted only when public health is at risk.
"When food is found to be unsafe, the law empowers us to immediately suspend the licence because consuming such food could endanger public health," Mundhe told the publication. "In less serious cases, we issue improvement notices."
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He dismissed criticism that the FDA acts without giving businesses an opportunity to rectify deficiencies. Mundhe, a 2005-batch IAS officer who took charge in May and has since overseen an aggressive enforcement drive against adulteration and hygiene violations across the state.
According to Mundhe, the state FDA has inspected more than 600 hotels and restaurants since he assumed office around two months ago. Of these, licences of about 60 establishments were suspended, while nearly 150 were served improvement notices. The remaining businesses were found to be compliant.
"Action is always proportionate to the nature and severity of the violation," he said.
The comments come amid an intensified food safety drive that has seen inspections of restaurants, bakeries, dairies and other food establishments across Maharashtra. Several businesses have faced action over hygiene and food safety lapses.
Mundhe said the crackdown has primarily targeted high-risk sectors that directly impact public health and has improved compliance across the industry.
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The FDA chief also said law-abiding businesses have nothing to fear, adding that enforcement will continue against operators compromising food safety.
Separately, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora has called on the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to replicate Maharashtra's food safety enforcement drive across the country, holding up the state's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a model worth scaling nationally.
In a post on X, Deora wrote that "what Maharashtra's FDA is doing to regulate food safety should become the national standard," urging FSSAI "to show the same urgency across India, especially on packaged foods." He added that hygiene and tackling India's obesity epidemic "must become national priorities."
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