Benchmark set by Tukaram Mundhe must become the norm

THE unprecedented enforcement of food safety laws by Maharashtra Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Tukaram Mundhe, and some of the subsequent actions by the FDA in Karnataka have exposed the fallacy that the more you pay for food, the better its quality and safety, or that five-star hotels maintain the highest hygiene standards in their kitchens.

Cockroach infestation, rotten meat, fungus-infested vegetables, expired products, spoilt dairy, poor storage and refrigeration, and unhygienic handling of food were among the many infractions found across food establishments — ranging from five-star hotels and high-end clubs to multinational fast-food chains, bakeries, quick-commerce warehouses and government and educational canteens.

This is a sad reflection on the food industry in the country in general and food safety enforcement in particular.

In fact, Tukaram Mundhe’s enforcement drive raises a very fundamental question. Why is someone like Mundhe such a rarity? What he is doing should be the norm in every state, but ironically, it is such an exception that we are all celebrating the way he is taking the violators to task, instilling the fear of the law in them and protecting consumers. Why are other food commissioners not doing what they ought to do? Is it corruption, or fear of transfers, or political interference? What about ministers in charge of health and food? Why are they not ensuring effective enforcement of food safety laws?

It is no wonder that public faith in the administration’s ability to ensure food safety is low. A recent survey of 22,000 consumers by Local Circles found 79 per cent of them expressing very low trust in the district/state FDAs to fully ensure food safety. This trust deficit must be overcome by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the FDAs.

As per Health Ministry data provided in July this year, food safety authorities conducted 5,20,566 inspections across the country during the 2025-26 financial year, analysed 2,33,808 food samples and found 40,023 to be non-conforming. Enforcement resulted in 31,878 cases ending in penalties, besides 1,918 criminal convictions.

However, to judge the effectiveness of enforcement in keeping unsafe food from the market, we need much greater transparency. What is the total number of food operators in the country and what percentage was inspected? How were inspections distributed across food and risk categories? How many were repeat inspections? How many samples were drawn per inspection and from how many establishments? And how many prosecutions ended in conviction? All such data must be provided.

I also feel that the courts must take food safety enforcement more seriously. After all, it is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, and the health of a nation depends to a considerable extent on the quality and safety of food available to its people.

In Sanjay Baburao Nirbhavne vs State of Maharashtra case, for example, the Bombay High Court’s dismissal of the presence of two insects in the dishwashing and sweets section of the kitchen of a four-star hotel, while setting aside the suspension order issued by the Maharashtra FDA, comes as a big disappointment. The judgment only refers to ‘insects’ and does not mention what they were, though some media reports said they were cockroaches.

Whether cockroaches or flies, they can pick up pathogens from garbage and sewers and contaminate kitchen counters, food and even cleaned utensils, potentially leading to outbreaks of food-borne diseases. So, how can one overlook the presence of insects in a hotel kitchen?

The FDA had on July 3 suspended the licence of Hotel Park Inn by Radisson after finding several violations during a surprise inspection. The hotel challenged it before the Bombay High Court, which ordered a fresh inspection on July 18 and found only 79 per cent improvement. During a subsequent inspection, the improvement was 95 per cent. The court said when the overall compliance was satisfactory, the only adverse observation about the presence of two insects did not justify continued suspension.

The reported oral remark of one of the judges to FDA that “this is India, be practical”, if accurate, is even more distressing. Does that mean that in India, food standards should remain low, or violations should be overlooked?

Food safety requires full compliance with the law because even a slight lack of diligence or carelessness can lead to loss of life. In February-March this year, accidental contamination of milk with highly toxic ethylene glycol, suspected to have taken place in the chilling unit of a small dairy, led to 20 persons in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district falling seriously ill with acute renal failure. Sixteen of them eventually died.

In March 2024, a chocolate cake ordered from Cake Kanha through Zomato tragically ended 10-year-old Manvi’s life in Patiala, on her birthday. The baker had substituted sugar with an extremely high, lethal concentration of saccharine to cut costs! The only way to stop such tragedies is to enforce the law so strictly that no one dares to play with consumers’ lives.

Now that one man has set the benchmark and shown us how food safety laws ought to be enforced, this should become the norm and not a one-time wonder. Consumers should start demanding the same kind of enforcement from food safety officials around the country.

— The writer is a consumer affairs expert