Unlicensed milk dairies in rural Maharashtra are reportedly throwing away their stock out of fear of action by the state's Food and Drug Administration, incurring heavy losses, FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe said, urging such operators to register instead of abandoning their business.
Asked about reports from rural stringers that dairies without proper paperwork were destroying milk rather than risk enforcement action, Mundhe, who heads the FDA in Maharashtra as both Food Safety Commissioner and Commissioner of Drug Administration for the state, said no food business can legally operate without a licence, but stressed that registration is a straightforward process rather than a punitive one.
"I do not think any business without licence can operate because licence is just not a licensing sort of a system, because it is the business and it is regulated by certain regulations," he said.
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Mundhe said dairies fall under the same regulatory framework as other food business operators in the state, with around 22 categories of regulation applying depending on the nature of the business. He said an unlicensed dairy is, by definition, operating illegally, and cannot continue in that state. "If you are saying there are illegal dairies, it means it is illegal, they cannot operate it," he said.
Mundhe's Message To Dairy Operators
Rather than destroying stock, Mundhe said dairies should apply for registration through the proper process, which he said would resolve their concerns without further losses. "They have to apply online, follow the due process, comply with the requirements and you will get the registration, you work. There is no need to fear about it. You have to comply with the system, follow the process and you will be better off," he said.
Scale Of The Problem
Mundhe's appeal comes against the backdrop of a major crackdown on milk adulteration in the state. Pune rural police and the Maharashtra FDA recently busted an inter-district synthetic milk racket, arresting 13 people and seizing material worth more than Rs 2 crore, according to news agency PTI. Raids were conducted in Manchar, described as the main hub of the racket, along with Akluj, Ahilyanagar, Sillod and Sangli, all within Maharashtra.
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Investigators found that the accused were allegedly mixing roughly 500 litres of chemically prepared synthetic milk into every 1,000 litres of genuine milk before supplying it to the market, with the synthetic version made using chemicals, milk powder and shampoo, among other ingredients, PTI reported. The joint operation, carried out under the guidance of Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Sandeep Singh Gill and Mundhe, involved a 30-member team from the Pune Rural Local Crime Branch alongside more than 20 FDA staffers.
The bust illustrates the scale of the challenge the department is confronting within the state even as it tries to bring unlicensed operators into the regulatory fold rather than push them out. Mundhe's comments come as the Maharashtra FDA has sharply escalated enforcement activity across the state, with over 900 raids conducted and material worth close to Rs 34 crore seized in a single month, according to figures he shared in an earlier interview to NDTV. He said this reflects a step-up in enforcement visibility rather than confirmation that violations themselves have increased, since comparable historical data is not available. "Our activities of enforcement have definitely increased. Those are becoming much more visible," he had said.
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Mundhe added that dairy remains a high-priority category for the department given its daily consumption across all age groups, and said the Maharashtra FDA's approach is to guide operators towards compliance rather than push them out of business, provided they follow due process and meet the required standards.
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