Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration has issued a new directive ordering restaurants and hotels across the state to stop asking diners what type of water they want. According to reports from NDTV Profit, FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe stated that restaurants must serve potable water free of charge before offering any paid alternative. The directive follows a personal experience by Mundhe at a restaurant where he found non-compliances with existing food safety norms.
The new order builds on existing regulations that have been in place since 2017, when the FSSAI first clarified that all food business operators must ensure potable drinking water is available to customers free of cost. As reported by NDTV Profit, packaged water can only be offered as an option, never as a requirement. Mundhe emphasized that restaurants cannot ask customers to choose their water type before serving anything, violating these established food safety norms.
Following Mundhe's personal inspection, the FDA sent a team to inspect the restaurant within 24 hours. According to the commissioner's statement to NDTV Profit, this rapid response is part of a wider Hotel, Restaurant and Eatery order that reiterates 22 existing food regulations covering how kitchens must segregate, separate and store food. Mundhe warned that if food is found to be unsafe, licenses will be suspended immediately, as consuming unsafe food could be injurious to health and attract life imprisonment.
The enforcement actions target Maharashtra's extensive food business ecosystem, which includes more than 11 lakh registered food business operators. As reported by NDTV Profit, over 4 lakh operators fall under the hotel, restaurant and eatery category. Mundhe defended his approach, stating that as a regulator, he is supposed to implement enforcement impartially, equitably, and proportionately without favoring or fearing anybody, adding that genuine businesses have nothing to fear from stricter enforcement.
