The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seized about 3.53 lakh kg of food worth ₹9.01 crore from 114 establishments in a festive-season drive between October 28 and 31, according to The Week, which cited PTI. The drive led to 13 FIRs and 16 arrests, The Hindu reported. The department was headed by commissioner Tukaram Munde during the drive.
The Patanjali ghee
The largest single item in the reports is 2,279.7 litres of Patanjali cow ghee, worth ₹20.20 lakh, seized from M/s Divya Mahavitarak, a super distributor of Patanjali Ayurved in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The FDA seized it on suspicion of misbranding and adulteration, and said the stock was prima facie in breach of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, The Week reported. The stock was made up of 4,032 units.
Suspicion is not a finding: whether the ghee was misbranded or adulterated will depend on laboratory tests, and no results have been reported. Neither report carries a response from Patanjali Ayurved or the distributor.
Other action
- 1,44,218 kg of edible oil was seized from Avenue Supermarts in Bhiwandi, Thane district.
- 20,560 kg of rice, pulses, jaggery and other food was seized from Amin Traders in Satara.
- Licences of 19 food businesses were suspended, including namkeen, sweet and spice units in the Mumbai, Amravati and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar divisions, for poor hygiene, improper storage, no pest-control records and missing paperwork, the FDA said.
- Seven establishments were closed and six vehicles seized, The Hindu reported.
- Banned food items worth ₹79.40 lakh were seized from 17 establishments, The Week reported.
Why it matters
The FDA described this as a special festive-season drive, and its figures show the scale: nearly ₹9 crore of stock taken off the market in four days, from 114 establishments. No laboratory results on the seized stock have been reported yet.