The Maharashtra FDA has intensified its food safety crackdown with 56 hotels and restaurants having their licences suspended since FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe took charge on May 25. The latest enforcement action saw 12 hotels, restaurants, bakeries and other establishments suspended across Pune and Satara after inspections allegedly found unhygienic conditions, expired products and food-safety violations. Separately, the canteen at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters was closed after the regulator said deficiencies identified during an earlier inspection had not been corrected. According to Bloomberg, the department has conducted more than 1,100 raids on food businesses across Maharashtra during this period, demonstrating the scale of the enforcement drive. Mundhe has maintained that compliant businesses have nothing to fear, while non-compliant operators will face action regardless of political pressure.
Three major hospitality industry associations have escalated their opposition to the Maharashtra FDA's enforcement measures, jointly petitioning the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The Hotel and Restaurant Association (Western India) (HRAWI), National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), and Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) have alleged that recent enforcement measures are bypassing statutory safeguards and hurting businesses. According to the associations, unpredictable enforcement and premature public naming of establishments could undermine investor confidence, affect tourism and disproportionately impact small and medium-sized restaurants, hotels and the lakhs of workers who depend on the sector for their livelihoods. The industry bodies have sought an urgent meeting with the Maharashtra Chief Minister and trade associations to develop a framework that safeguards both consumer interests and food safety while ensuring enforcement follows the legal process prescribed under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act.
At the centre of the dispute is Section 32 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, which requires food business operators to be served a 14-day Improvement Notice to correct deficiencies before licences are suspended or cancelled in routine cases. According to legal expert Aashima Shrivastava from Sagus Legal, the FDA can issue an improvement notice describing violations and giving businesses time to correct them, but can also suspend a licence immediately if it believes continued operations pose a threat to public health. 'Normally, the FDA has to warn the restaurant first, give it roughly two weeks to fix the problem, and only suspend if it doesn't,' Shrivastava explained, adding that the law also allows the FDA to suspend on the spot without warning if public health is at risk. However, the industry associations have raised concerns about the public disclosure of names, photographs and videos of establishments during enforcement action, arguing that publishing such material before legal proceedings are completed can cause lasting reputational damage, even in cases where businesses later comply with requirements or no final violation is established.
The FDA has moved against hospitals that pressured patients into buying medicines from in-house pharmacies, barring the practice across several government-run facilities in cities including Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Solapur and Sangli. As reported by The Economic Times, Mundhe said patients must be free to purchase prescribed drugs from any licensed pharmacy, whether inside a hospital campus or outside it. The commissioner indicated that the FDA's scrutiny would not stop at restaurants and hospital pharmacies.
The enforcement drive has raised concerns about transparency in food delivery platforms, with legal experts highlighting that suspended restaurants should not continue accepting orders through food-delivery apps during the suspension period. According to Shrivastava, 'The restaurant should come off the app for the suspension period,' as a suspended licence is generally treated as invalid during the period of suspension. However, there is uncertainty about how quickly food-delivery platforms learn about regulatory action, with technology existing to verify licence status against regulatory databases but platforms not publicly known to continuously recheck licences. The larger transparency issue lies in the fact that when the FDA suspends a restaurant, it makes headlines, but when that same restaurant fixes the problem and reopens, almost nobody hears about it. Legal experts argue that both suspension and reinstatement orders should be publicly available to allow customers to see whether an establishment remains suspended or has been cleared, protecting businesses from lasting reputational damage after they have corrected violations.
The enforcement drive faces significant staffing constraints, with Mundhe telling Bloomberg that the state has about 350 food inspectors and plans to hire another 50. He estimated that the regulator needs around 2,100 officers across its food and drug functions to ensure adequate compliance. This staffing shortage creates uncertainty for restaurants seeking to reopen after correcting violations, as the regulator may accept documentary proof or decide that a physical reinspection is required. The associations have highlighted the significant economic implications, noting that the food services sector directly employs over 85 lakh people nationwide and contributes an estimated ₹33,809 crore annually to the exchequer. The broader hospitality industry supports more than 3.2 crore jobs and contributes nearly 5.8% of India's GDP, with Maharashtra alone recording over 189 million domestic and 3.7 million foreign tourist visits in 2024.
