The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has seized 3,279.57 tonnes of banned and non-compliant food products worth Rs 81.80 crore in a nationwide enforcement drive carried out during the festive season, the regulator said. The drive, which ran from September 1 to November 5, covered 56,431 food establishments across states and Union Territories.
In one of the largest food-safety operations in recent years, the regulator cancelled 52 licences, suspended 1,133 licences and sealed 314 establishments. It also issued 10,047 improvement notices to businesses found violating food safety standards, according to figures the authority shared on social media on Saturday.
The seized products included the staples of the festive table — milk, paneer, ghee and sweets — along with cooking oils, khoya, bakery items, chocolates, ice creams, namkeen, packaged foods and festive hampers. The drive was launched specifically to check adulteration during the festival season, when demand for these items surges and the temptation to cut corners grows.
The inspections were carried out jointly with state food safety authorities, and the regulator said it had stepped up vigilance in view of the festivals. Samples were collected from manufacturing units, wholesalers, retailers and catering establishments, and a substantial number of them were still being analysed when the consolidated figures were released.
The scale of the operation reflects how widespread the problem remains. Food adulteration is a persistent worry in India, and the festive season, with its spike in demand for milk products and sweets, is when the risk is highest. Paneer and khoya, in particular, have been repeatedly flagged by regulators as products in which adulterants are commonly found.
The regulator did not release a state-wise break-up of the figures, and it did not name the individual establishments against which action was taken. But the message it sent was unmistakable: the festive season is no longer a free pass for food businesses, and the enforcement net is widening.
For consumers, the figures are both reassuring and unsettling — reassuring because the regulator is acting, unsettling because of how much unsafe food was in circulation in the first place. The authority has urged people to buy from licensed outlets, check labels and expiry dates, and report suspected adulteration on its Food Safety Connect app. With the wedding season now under way, the vigil, officials say, will continue. State food safety departments have been asked to keep the inspection tempo high through the coming months, so that the festive crackdown becomes a lasting deterrent rather than a one-off drive.
