Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has arrested 33 people and sealed 27 companies following a statewide crackdown on alleged food adulteration and safety violations, officials said.
The action was launched after the department received repeated complaints about adulterated food products. Over the past three days, teams conducted inspections in districts including Mumbai, Jalgaon, Pune and Nashik.
In Jalgaon, officials said they caught a group mixing cooking oil into milk. In Pune district’s Indapur area, authorities found chemicals being used to artificially ripen mangoes and seized mangoes worth about Rs 20,000.
In Palghar, the FDA seized goods worth several lakhs from an ice cream unit allegedly operating in unhygienic conditions. In Mumbai’s Dharavi, action was also taken against a noodles manufacturing unit for rule violations.
FDA Commissioner Tukaram Munde said the drive focused on detecting sales of banned tobacco products such as gutkha and pan masala, unsafe food production and breaches of food safety norms. He said banned and adulterated items worth Rs 20.67 lakh were seized, criminal cases would be filed against violators, and a dedicated mobile app is being developed to report food adulteration complaints.
