The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration has intensified its statewide crackdown on adulterated food, with the Bombay High Court upholding the licence suspension of a Thane restaurant found selling cheese analogue as paneer, even as raids across the state seized dairy and sweet stock worth several lakh rupees.
The Bombay High Court declined to hear a plea from Udupi Swad Restaurant challenging the suspension of its food licence, directing the operator to instead appeal before the Commissioner of Food Safety.
FDA officers in Thane had found the restaurant's loose paneer contained foreign fat rather than dairy ingredients, with the government laboratory declaring the sample "unsafe" under the Food Safety and Standards Act.
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The administration told the court that protecting citizens' health under Article 21 of the Constitution justified the immediate suspension, an argument the court accepted while upholding the FDA's action as legally valid.
Separately, raids in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Amravati divisions targeting banned items such as gutkha and pan masala led to the seizure of prohibited stock worth Rs 5.97 lakh, including a vehicle, with two FIRs registered and three persons arrested.
Across the state, the FDA seized 878 litres of suspect colostrum and 5,132.9 kg of dairy and sweets, including butter, khoya, paneer, ghee and shrikhand, worth Rs 6,55,725.
A further 2,127 kg of items such as gulab jamun mix, jaggery, barfi, modak pedha and motichoor laddoo, worth roughly Rs 3.68 lakh, were also seized.
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Individual actions included the seizure of 4,891.9 kg of cooking butter worth Rs 4.15 lakh at a Pune cold storage unit over labelling violations, and 878 litres of colostrum worth over Rs 1 lakh intercepted at a Palghar toll plaza for being transported without temperature control.
Dairies and sweet shops in Pune, Kolhapur, Jalna, Sangli and Parbhani were also flagged for unhygienic storage, suspected adulteration and labelling defects.
"The Government of Maharashtra is extremely strict regarding the quality of food and the enforcement of the law. Playing with the health of consumers and the public will not be tolerated under any circumstances," FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe said, warning of strict legal action against those selling or storing expired or adulterated food.
The FDA has asked consumers to report complaints on its toll-free number, 1800223365, or through its online grievance portal.
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